ANGARA CALLS FOR SAFEGUARDS AGAINST INTERNET PIRACY

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today lamented that the Philippines has not adequately responded to the issue of intellectual property rights infringement in cyberspace, and called for comprehensive and efficient strategies to respond to the upsurge of internet piracy.

"Advances in ICT have afforded us great efficiency and made knowledge virtually common to all. But there remains a responsibility to protect our intellectual property," he said.

Angara filed Senate Bill 880, proposing amendments to the Intellectual Property Code.

He said the primary aim of the bill is to provide safeguards to our growing number of artists and creators who publish their work online, and to ensure that they can license their work and be protect against intellectual property rights violation.

"This bill also gives recognition to the rights of performers, phonogram producers and broadcasters as are accorded authors of artistic and literally works, by acknowledging their right to control or be compensated for the various ways in which their works are used or enjoyed by others," he said.

Angara said that protecting one's rights to an idea has been growing in importance and patents are becoming the highest value assets in any economy.

"In this age of information, a nation's wealth no longer primarily rests on its natural resources but on the ideas that its people can generate. Promoting and protecting those ideas is a challenge that every nation now faces," he said.