RP efforts vs piracy hailed

The US named the Philippines as one of the countries that has made the notable progress in its fight against piracy.

In the Special 310 Report released by the United States Trade Representative (USTR), it described the Philippines as one of the nations that “have made progress toward implementing controls on optical media production.”

“The Special 301 Report sends a strong message that the Philippine government is serious about protecting intellectual property rights (IPR). This is the kind of small victories we need to sustain our momentum,” Adrian S. Cristobal Jr., director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines) said.

The report likewise commended Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ukraine.

In addition, the report lauded countries that use legal software and other copyrighted materials based on the agreement made by member countries of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2006.

“Considerable progress has been under this initiative,” the report said. “The United States commends these governments for setting a positive example and expects these measures to be fully implemented. The United States looks forward to the adoption by other governments of effective and transparent procedures to ensure legitimate use of software,” the report stated.

Other countries in the report that have enacted the decree or are in the process of implementing the order on government use of software are Bolivia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Macau, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

However, in spite of the improvements the US said stronger laws are needed to curb piracy.

“The United States continues to urge its trading partners who face pirated optical media production within their borders to pass effective legislation and aggressively enforce existing laws and regulations,” the report stated.

For his part, Optical Media Board chairman Eduardo B. Manzano said that the report is the result of the good work his office has been doing in combating piracy.

OMB conducted 2,526 operations, and confiscated more than 4.8 million units of optical discs with an estimated value of P1.12 billion. OMB is a member agency of the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR). IP Philippines is the lead coordinating agency of the committee.