PH to ‘benefit greatly’ with advertisers’ help vs pirates

Intellectual property protection goes hand-in-hand with economic progress.

This was the message of this year’s World Intellectual Property Day, celebrated annually on April 26, according to Oliver Walsh, Motion Picture Association (MPA) regional director for online content protection operations.

Walsh told the Inquirer that like-minded organizations had sought protection for artists and businesses in different entertainment fields.

“This year, we joined the US Embassy, the Intellectual Property Office Philippines, the Philippine Association of the Record Industry, Solar Entertainment, the Philippine Association of National Advertisers and [streaming service] iflix to send a very important message—that strong intellectual property protection underpins any successful economy, and provides a powerful incentive to innovate,” Walsh said. “This is very much the case in the Philippines.”

There is close cooperation between the MPA and local law enforcement, he added: “We do work closely with the Philippine National Police, which has been strongly supporting the MPA’s investigations into the criminal infringement of copyrighted content in the Philippines.”

One initiative that continues to deal with the piracy of internationally released films and other products like TV shows, music, games and software is the blocking of advertisers in offending websites.
The move, according to Walsh, is an effective strategy that has helped cripple some pirating operations abroad.

“Majority of pirate websites that distribute copyrighted material do not have any of the rights to those films or television shows, [but] make significant amounts of money from operating the websites,” he said.

“A 2014 study found that 80 percent of pirate website operators fund themselves solely through the sale of advertising space on their sites. It can be a hugely profitable enterprise. It is impossible for legitimate companies—which invest heavily in production and distribution—to compete with websites that incur very low costs of operation.”

One recent arrest of a global site operator, Walsh recounted, illustrated how those ads affected pirates. “[The suspect] revealed that he was making [close to] $21 million a year.”

Key facilitator

Walsh elaborated that the United Kingdom’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (Pipcu) identified advertising as a key facilitator of piracy, in 2013: “They created the ‘Infringing Website List (IWL),’ a lineup of sites provided to the police by right holders in the United Kingdom. The Pipcu reviews the list, confirms if criminal acts have taken place, then shares the list with the advertising industry, along with a request that they prevent ads from reaching those websites.”

According to the MPA representative, the IWL initiative has been “extremely successful.” This is backed by a study in 2016 monitoring the efficacy of the list. “[The study] showed a 65-percent fall in the number of well-known branded advertisements appearing on listed websites. The UK IWL features over 1,200 websites and over 120 companies are using it,” said Walsh. “Work is underway to introduce similar initiatives [in the region]. The Philippines, with its mature online advertising community and significant number of locally based pirate websites, would benefit greatly from the introduction of an IWL.”

How should audiences be encouraged to stay away from pirated goods? Walsh offered possible ways and current undertakings. “The government and the industry are rolling out education campaigns to raise awareness about the effects of piracy on creators, the industry, on the audience and the wider economy.”

He further added that in the Asia Pacific, site blocking is viewed as a “proportionate and effective” means of lessening infringement. “Globally, 42 countries employ disabling access to pirate websites.”

Walsh enumerated other current methods: “Rights holders are now working with search engines to derank pirate websites—audiences are more likely to find the film or TV show via legal channels; social media has become a powerful tool in awareness-building campaigns, and high-profile actors and filmmakers often participate in new consumer awareness programs.”

There are dangers involved with online theft, he reiterated: “Our current awareness efforts are focused on online safety. In 2015, an estimated 199 million pirated movies and TV shows were shared on [networks] in the Philippines. They are susceptible to phishing, malware and other security threats. According to Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes’ 2017 State of Malware Report, the Philippines accounted for nearly half of all botnet detections in Asia.”