Film 'pirate' arrested in Calamba

A man was arrested at his shop in Calamba, Laguna for allegedly downloading movies on the Internet and selling them, a report on Unang Balita on Wednesday said.

Arrested by Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group operatives was Jamaal Miraato Macalabo alias Lamaj Abdulmalik, GMA News' Athena Imperial reported.

Macalabo was arrested for allegedly violating the Intellectual Property (IP) Code.

The suspect admitted that he downloaded movies via Torrent for his personal use, but denied selling copies of them.

However, use of Torrent and other file-sharing programs to download copyrighted movies, e-books, and software is piracy, the report said.

Some of the movies downloaded by Macalabo were copyrighted by the Motion Pictures Association.

"We are able to detect kung saan ba siya nagbebenta ng mga movies na ito. And we conduct a test buy in order to identify and we were able to buy soft copies of the movies copyrighted under the Motion Pictures Association of America," P/Supt. Jay Guillermo, chief of the Public Information Office of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group, said.

The suspect also allegedly did camcording and used social media to promote his business. However, he denied this.

"Camcording po, hindi po ako nag-ca-camcording. Kung nag-download po, nagda-download lang po talaga kami," he said.

The PNP warned against downloading copyrighted materials.

"That is a violation of IP Law... Makikita natin kung minsan maraming mga cyber attacks na nangyayari sa mga organization and sometimes they are using pirated movies through Torrent," Guillermo said. —KG, GMA News