Why ‘rolling site-blocking’ should be a 19th Congress ICT priority

The Philippines lags in the region when it comes to protecting digital intellectual property against digital piracy. But if it wants to, the 19th Congress can pass new legislation to strengthen regulatory mechanisms that would enable the growth of our local creative industries.

When the new Congress commences next month, one of the first things legislators in the Senate and House of Representatives will do is identify their legislative priorities for the next three years. Over the 19th Congress, thousands of bills will be filed in both Houses, and legislative committees have a finite number of hearings to deliberate a seemingly infinite number of bills referred to them. There’s a more significant chance that a measure will be deliberated and passed into law if it is identified as a priority from the get go.

In the past, measures such as the Cybercrime Prevention Act, the Data Privacy Act, and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) were a trio of ICT priority measures deliberated and approved between the 15th and 16th Congress. These laws introduced a legal framework to fight against hacking, identity theft, online abuse, and exploitation of children, created our National Privacy Commission, and upgraded the ICT Office to a full-fledged Department.

Back when they were passed, each of these was considered a landmark piece of legislation and they helped the Philippines catch up to global technology policy standards while at the same time strengthen the country’s ICT-enabled industries. Remember, before the DICT law was passed, the Philippines was embarrassingly one of few countries in the region without a ministry-level ICT agency. So, the passage of the DICT act alone sent a clear message that the Philippines recognizes the potential of ICT-enabled industries and is taking seriously the tasks of leveling the playing field and realigning the country with global ICT stage.

Today, the 19th Congress has a chance to impact the Philippine ICT policy landscape further by passing legislation to strengthen the country’s ability to address a growing problem— digital piracy.

According to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), counterfeiting and piracy reports were up 25% in just a year. The Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) found a similar trend. Based on its 2022 YouGov survey, Filipinos who access pirated content have increased from 49% in 2020 to 61% in 2021. This makes the Philippines the third highest consumer of illegal content in Asia.

This increasing incidence of digital piracy is impacting the local creative industries, as well. According to Media Partners Asia (MPA), Filipino Creative professionals, such as actors, directors, video producers, distributors, and aggregators, have suffered at least P1 billion in potential revenue loss in 2020 alone. It's estimated that the streaming industry has also lost at least P6.3 billion.

Currently, the IPHOPHIL is trying to combat digital piracy with its “site-blocking” protocol. This means that once a complaint of piracy is filed, the IPO would kick off a process of ordering the website to be blocked so that users in the Philippines cannot access the pirated content anymore. However, due to constraints in the current intellectual property act, the order must undergo a review process first and can take several days before taking effect.

The fact that pirated websites that are taken down can quickly pop up again under a new URL or through other proxy and mirror sites further aggravates the problem. This is because the IPOPHIL must wait anew for a complaint to be filed before it can issue a new site-blocking order that must again undergo the review process. Frankly, regulators can’t keep up.

A solution being used to combat the prevalence of digital piracy by regulators in other countries is a mechanism called “rolling site-blocking.” This mechanism is successfully used in countries like South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand. 

The difference between the Philippines' current site-blocking protocols and the rolling site-blocking mechanism is that initial takedown— the final output of the first — is just the beginning of the process of the latter. Under the rolling site-blocking mechanism, regulators continue to monitor and block any future attempt of the infringer to continue making the pirated content available online. Under rolling site-blocking infringing websites can be taken down much faster — in a matter of hours rather than days.

During the 18th Congress, IPOPHIL proposed amendments to the intellectual property code that would give it the power to more rapidly issue take-down orders to block erring websites and forgo the current review process. The bills were deliberated in the House of Representatives but were not consolidated before Session adjourned Sine die.

Given the effectiveness of rolling site blocking mechanisms to fight digital piracy in other countries, IPOPHIL and IP holders should again push for amendments to the intellectual property code when the 19th Congressional commences in July. 

And when they do, our congressional leaders should see these proposed rolling site-blocking amendments as low-hanging fruit since the bill was already extensively deliberated at the committee at the House of Representatives. Passing the law would also allow the Philippines quickly catch up to global policy standards for combating digital piracy. 

Furthermore, implementation shouldn’t be an issue either, since regulators like the IPOPHIL and the NTC, ISPs, and IP holders already seem ready to implement the rolling site-blocking mechanism once an enabling law is in place. 

But most of all, if Congress makes this a priority ICT measure and passes these amendments into law, it would have a direct economic impact on the country’s creative industry. After all, Filipino creatives— actors, directors, writers, and film crews — are victims of digital piracy too. The passage of enabling IP law will directly benefit them.

Paco A. Pangalangan is the executive director of think tank Stratbase ADR Institute.