Telco underscores need for education and legislation to curb ‘massive’ piracy

By Lorenz S. Marasigan, Business Mirror, 20 Sep 2019

Globe Telecom Inc. underscored the need for intensified efforts on education and legislation to help curb piracy in the Philippines, as illegal consumption of content has already massively migrated to the digital arena.

In a news statement, Globe Vice President for Content Portfolio and Partner Management Jill Go said the Philippines lacks “real regulations” that prevent piracy, stressing that this supposed dearth in policy is “one of the major reasons why online piracy continues to be a problem in the country.”

Telco networks, she said, have become conduits of piracy. For instance, she said in Globe’s network alone, almost a fifth of its data traffic growth in 2018 accounted for illegal video streaming or downloads.

“That in itself, if you think about that in terms of petabytes, is already huge. This is theft that’s actually going around unchecked because there are no regulatory teeth to actually put them behind bars,” she said.

According to the Asia Video Industry Association, 34 percent of Filipino online consumers use an “illicit streaming service,” which is essentially a media player that allows users to watch movies and television shows illegally.

Go said the lack of regulations curbing the illegal consumption of content online is the reason why Globe partnered with content service providers, which provide consumers with legal options for content consumption.

This, she noted, is not enough to stop piracy.

“Globe Telecom sees it as a responsibility to help shape the regulations in terms of creating rules, or laws, that can really put into place some teeth in terms of curbing piracy,” Go said.

The company earlier announced its support for the Philippine Online Infringement Act, a proposed legislation that will enable the National Telecommunications Commission to cancel the licenses of Internet service providers that allow web sites to facilitate the infringement of copyright.

Aside from this, Go said, her group also views education as a necessity to stop piracy.

“[We are working on] customer awareness in terms of what perils illegal content consumption brings to you, whether it is identity theft, malware, and sorts of security risks,” Go said. “But it is also bringing to mind the consciousness that you’re actually stealing from the livelihood of countless of individuals behind the creative industry in terms of moviemaking or whether it’s short term or long term.”

Go said Globe is hoping that it can eliminate the consumer’s need to avail content illegally by continuing to give consumers “unprecedented content experience” through its local and foreign content partners.

“[We hope for a] good merger between the regulatory, corporate, and also the partnerships so that we can provide a very good end to end customer experience [and also] put forward a very savvy corporate social responsibility to enforce legal use of content,” Go added.