MANILA, Philippines — Since the early ‘90s, when compact discs (CDs) proliferated around, piracy became rampant. Undoubtedly, piracy has tremendously affected the local film industry, especially now, when in just a click of a button, one can easily access anything bootleg in software.
Members of the entertainment industry recently engaged in a fireside chat on the crippling effects of piracy in the entertainment industry. TV host Kuya Kim Atienza, actress Shaina Magdayao and actor Edu Manzano sat down with moderator Pia Guanio and talked about piracy.
The anti-piracy symposium was jointly organized by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), GMA Network, Inc. and Globe to address the risks associated with piracy and cybercrime.
Globe’s chief sustainability and corporate communications officer, Yoly Crisanto, emphasized that amending the Intellectual Property Code to enable site-blocking is crucial to protect Filipino consumers and the digital ecosystem. She urged Congress to pass this legislation before the current session ends.
Edu experienced actual enforcement when he took on the task of being the first chairman of the Optical Media Board (OMB) from 2004 to 2010.
“What used to come into the country were the huge replicating machines, which costs about P20 million each,” shared Edu. “It could produce one million CDs a day. That became a vicious cycle.”
“At that time, we were working closely with the Motion Picture Association of America, the business software alliance and recording companies.
“From London, the Motion Picture Association of America brought in polycarbonate-sniffing dogs and they could smell through walls, including the pirates. They can smell through food and under extreme heat conditions. The dogs were very, very effective.
“When it came to the replicating machines, we tried to take out as much as we could. Then we saw the USBs or the hard drives, any piece that could hold audio and video storage point.
“We were very fortunate because the Supreme Court, at that time, allowed us to address the problems of media piracy. I had to admit a lot of our raids turned out to be successful,” the veteran actor added.
When piracy kicked in, many workers in the industry became jobless. “We could not find work for many people in the industry,” Edu lamented. “We saw the direct effect. To this day, I can say the industry has not recovered.”
Today, there is an average only 30 films produced per year, compared to over 200 before. Nearly 9,000 workers in showbiz lost their jobs.
“At that time, we were always talking about the physical product, which were the CDs and DVDs,” Edu maintained. “It was just a matter of time before we realized the law then was ineffective and had too many flaws.”
“With the way it is going, we have to pressure like-minded members of the House of Representatives and the Senate that the laws previously passed became flawed because technology advances at an amazing pace.”
Kuya Kim, on the other hand, pointed out how fake CDs and DVDs proliferated then in places like Harrison Plaza, Greenhills and Makati Cinema Square.
“I remember Edu and his OMB team were destroying thousands of CDs outside through a bulldozer or a pison. But now, you don’t even have to shell money to watch pirated materials. It’s free,” he said.
“Everything comes with a mere click of a button. But what you get is bad quality material. There are illegal streaming sites. How do they make money? There are advertisements from porn and other digital sites. Scamming is becoming more and more rampant.”
Before, only those who could afford the replicating machines could become a pirate. Today, however, anybody who has a tablet or a desktop computer can replicate videos.
Pia shared that in 2022, P781 million were lost due to online video piracy. In 2018, there was 47 percent decline in box-office sales. The figures became alarming. Cyber-security need to be strictly enforced.
“Filipinos can make it in the international scene with our talent,” said Shaina. “We just need opportunities, the right vehicles, the right projects. But at the end of the day, for us workers and actors, show business is business.”
“If there is no return of investment to producers, they will not be investing in our work or our talent anymore. They will not be encouraged to train emerging filmmakers to put up production houses who can make films,” she further said.
Edu, who was also the president of the Actors’ Guild for four years (from 1995 to 1999), with registered members of 12,000, noted that there is a different picture of Philippine cinema now.
“We used to have three Filipino films every Wednesday competing against each other,” Edu recalled. “There were also foreign films competing in the same playdate. Today, there are 30 films produced a year and the qualities of some were even pito-pito — made in only seven days.”
Shaina lamented the viewing habits of local audience is changing. “Their attention span is getting shorter. It’s actually a struggle for us to tell a good story even in 10 minutes. When before, full-length films were the norm, today, we need to shorten the product.”
“The landscape has changed. Viewing habits have changed. They are not even watching free TV anymore. They are not accessing our work anymore. With people not realizing, they are actually contributing to the death of this industry,” added Shaina, who was recently part of the short film jury of the QCinema International Festival.
“We need to cultivate respect for the industry and the films. We need to educate respect for the younger generation. We need to share the love for cinema with the younger generation.”