Optical Media Piracy Continues to Flourish

The Philippines is rapidly becoming a central battlefield in the increasingly intense campaign against optical media piracy in Southeast Asia; but the country remains ill-prepared to fight this battle. Pirate production capacity in the Philippines continues to increase, as pirate syndicates flee less hospitable jurisdictions; both imports and exports of unauthorized digital copies move freely across the country’s porous borders; and the Philippine domestic market remains heavily infiltrated by pirate product in all segments, from software to audio-visual, music to books. Steps toward the enactment of regulatory controls on the optical media business, and toward an updated legal framework to accommodate e-commerce and to outlaw online piracy, are commendable; but the weak link remains enforcement. The country’s investigative, prosecutorial, and judicial systems are underfunded, overwhelmed by a relentless tide of piracy, and seemingly unable to muster the political will needed to remove procedural bottlenecks and reduce endless delays. At the end of the process, deterrent punishment is never forthcoming. Meanwhile, the country lags in meeting its international obligations under TRIPS, especially with regard to enforcement, and it has never successfully dealt with the legacy of the Marcos-era decrees that blighted its legitimate book market. The Philippines should be placed on the Priority Watch List for 2001 to underscore U.S. insistence that these long-standing and serious problems be effectively tackled.