Tough penalties now await anti-piracy violators

President Arroyo signed into law yesterday Republic Act 9239 or the Optical Media Act, which imposes a maximum penalty of P1.5 million in fines and six years imprisonment for film and music pirates.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said RA 9239 is a cooperative effort of the Philippines and the United States against intellectual piracy.

He said this was one of the agreements made by the two countries during the state visit of US President George Bush in the country in October last year.

"I told President Bush, I hope once the Optical Media bill is passed into law in the Philippines, Filipino artists would have greater opportunities in the US itself," Mrs. Arroyo told a gathering of showbiz personalities who witnessed the signing rites at the National Arts Center Theater at Mt. Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna.

Among those present were popular local movie and television industry personalities led by former Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB) chairman and now K-4 senatorial candidate Ramon "Bong" Revilla. Some of the showbiz personalities were also there.

Mrs. Arroyo impressed upon her audience that the measure was meant to protect the local film industry.

The new law punishes persons or businesses involved in the illegal manufacture, replication and sale of "any recordable medium, or device where information, including sound or images, fixed or unfixed in a combination of software code is stored."

The bill also covers various disc formats in different technical variations which may be accessed or read using a lens scanning mechanism. These include movies, songs and other entertainment programs stored on DVDs, VCDs or CDs.

To implement the law, the VRB will be reorganized to become the Optical Media Board (OMB).

"The days of these pirates are numbered. The President’s approval of the law is the real victory that the entertainment industry has been longing for," said Revilla.

He recalled that VRB’s iron-fist campaign against video and film piracy during his stint was successful due to the all-out support given him by the President.

An estimated $60 billion is lost globally to piracy. The Philippines ranked No. 3 in Asia in manufacturing and selling pirated entertainment media materials, according to Rep. Imee Marcos, one of the four authors of the anti-piracy bill.

"We are on the watch list of international intellectual property protection organizations because of this," Marcos said.