Motion Picture Association awards IPOPHL for leading site-blocking efforts in APAC

December 6, 2021

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) recently received the “Site blocking in Asia Pacific – Government Leadership Award,” conferred by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), for the Office’s efforts to implement site blocking at the forefront of its fight against piracy. 

“We thank the MPA for this recognition. This is a testament to IPOPHL’s determination to help our film industry and overall creative economy build back stronger with the protection of their intellectual property (IP),” IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said.

Delivering the keynote address to the MPA’s Global Site Blocking Legal Conference last November 17, Barba highlighted IPOPHL’s recent actions on site blocking, namely the new rules expanding IEO’s powers to order site-blocking through the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which has primary jurisdiction over internet service providers (ISPs).

He noted that IPOPHL is working to formalize a partnership with the NTC and local ISPs to create an efficient coordination mechanism that will block sites in a matter of days upon ISP’s receipt of IPOPHL’s issuance of the order.   

Barba also mentioned its recent partnerships with the Asia Video Industry Association to capacitate the IEO with the operational and technical capabilities needed for an effective rolling site-blocking, and the Film Development Council of the Philippine to help more film makers protect their works.

Barba shared how the Philippine film industry last year plunged into losses at the first virtual Metro Manila Film Festival, when revenues reportedly nosedived to P95 million — a far cry from the nearly P1 billion a year ago — with rampant piracy largely blamed by producers. 

IPOPHL also said it is looking forward to its partnership with the MPA to further support the film industry –– details of which are hoped to be finalized soon.

Another new effort on site-blocking efforts, the IPOPHL chief revealed, is IPOPHL’s subscription to Muso, a piracy demand data and analytics platform. 

“We expect this to help us anticipate piracy trends and make better anti-piracy strategies and decisions,” Barba added.

The IPOPHL head also announced news on legislative steps to update the IP Code of 1997 and include rolling site-blocking.

“Having the power to order site-blocking ourselves is one of the amendments we want to have in our IP Code of 1997. The bill to amend our IP Law, which includes this provision, recently hurdled Committee-level review at the lower House, and we hope to see progress with the bill continue and the new law to move closer into a reality,” Barba added. 

The Global Site Blocking Legal Conference is MPA’s annual event that gathers legal counsels from all over the world to discuss key site-blocking topics and issues. 

For this year’s conference, some 45 lawyers from Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and Australia and about 60 executives from MPA studio members attended.