Angara seeks stricter policy vs Internet piracy

Sen. Edgardo Angara on Wednesday sought amendments to the Intellectual Property Code to battle the upsurge in Internet piracy.

In a statement, Angara said the Intellectual Property Code has not kept pace with advances made in the area of intellectual property rights infringement in e-commerce.

He said the proposed amendments in the IPC should give recognition to the rights of performers, phonogram producers and broadcasters as accorded authors of artistic and literary works "by acknowledging their right to control or be compensated for the various ways in which their works are used or enjoyed by others."

"With the Philippines' ratification of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), there is a need for amendments to the IPC to contain the additional obligations imposed by the provisions in said treaties," said Angara who chairs the Committee on Science and Technology.

"While our Intellectual Property Code was shaped with a consummate vision at the time of its enactment, its provisions have not kept pace with the advances made in the area of intellectual property rights infringement in E-Commerce.

He said that IPC amendments must address the technological measures provisions in Article 11 of the WCT and Article 18 of the WPPT; and the rights management information provisions (Article 12 of the WCT and WPPT) of the Internet Treaties.

Angara shared that since 1980, the Philippines has been a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which seeks "to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States."

He said Senate Bill 880 seeks to impose more stringent penalties for rights-violators, while immediate judicial relief and alternative options are proposed to be accorded actual and potential victims of copyright infringement.

"The overriding goal of this proposal is to provide an Internet environment where it is safe to distribute and license protected material. Because in an increasingly global arena, nothing less than a global effort will ensure the effective protection and development of intellectual property," added Angara.

'MS Windows, Photoshop most pirated software in RP'

Pop quiz: what are the two most pirated software in the Philippines today?

According to Business Software Alliance consultant Atty. Bien Marquez, majority of computer users in the Philippines who use pirated software often use illegal copies of Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop in their PCs.

"Aside from Windows, the most pirated software right now is Adobe Photoshop. The next is Autodesk AutoCAD, there's a lot of that. Finally, there are the anti-virus programs such as McAfee, Symantec and others. Those are the types of [pirated] software widely reported on the BSA hotline," Marquez told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

He said in one recent forum of architecture students, he asked the audience who among them were using pirated copies of AutoCAD. "Almost everyone raised their hands. When I asked who were using IntelliCAD, only two raised their hands," he said.

Marquez said some computer users prefer to use proprietary software instead of free software because they are satisfied with their experience in using paid software. He added, however, that while the BSA advocates the use of free software, users must realize that they should pay if they want to use proprietary software.

"We promote copyright protection. On the other hand, we also believe in giving users a choice especially since some of our members do create free software. It's up to the user if they want to use open source or not but if they use proprietary software, they have to be willing to pay," he said.

Marquez said there are five types of software piracy namely end user piracy, hard disk loading, software counterfeiting, client-server overuse and Internet piracy.

End user piracy takes place when end users make use of unlicensed software on their computers or install more copies than they are entitled to under the license agreement.

Hard disk loading happens when computer dealers pre-install illegal copies of software onto computers prior to sale. This means that some dealers use one legally acquired copy but install it on many machines. These computers are usually sold without any form of licensing documentation or disks

Software counterfeiting is the illegal duplication and sale of software in a form that is almost identical to the genuine product.

Client-server overuse takes place when too many employees on a network use a central copy of a program at the same time than stipulated under licence agreements

Finally, Internet piracy happens when software programs are placed by third parties on the Internet for download free of charge or for a fee. Pirates tend also to use the Internet as a means of advertising to solicit sales or auction sites to sell illegal software

The BSA launched on Tuesday a new video that encouraged Filipinos to be a "superhero" in the fight against piracy. The video directs viewers to BSA’s newly established website, which contains helpful tips on how to spot the use of pirated software in the workplace including basic information about software piracy and its types as well as the economic impact of software piracy.

Marquez said the BSA maintains a hotline where the public can submit reports against businesses using unlicensed and pirated software. From January to August 2009 alone, the BSA has already received over 500 reports through the hotline. The organization currently offers a reward of up to P1 million to individuals who can provide information that will lead to a successful case against a company that uses unlicensed and pirated software.

Google to draw up new privacy policy for books

Google has agreed to draw up a separate privacy policy for its digital library in response to a request from the US government's Federal Trade Commission.

The concessions come amid a growing outcry among critics who believe a class-action settlement with US authors and publishers will give Google too much insight about the books that people are reading online.

In letters and statements released Thursday, the FTC emphasized it will closely monitor how Google protects the privacy of readers accessing its digital library.

The settlement giving Google the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books protected by copyright is the subject of intense debate. A court deadline to protest or support the agreement has been extended from Friday to next Tuesday.

Nokia strikes back against 'smart' rivals

Faced with increased competition from up-and-coming rivals, Finnish telecom giant Nokia plans to launch a slew of new products this year but analysts say it faces a tough battle to hold on to its position as the world's number one mobile phone manufacturer.

To fight back against Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry, Nokia announced plans to launch three new smartphones with touch screens, a portable notebook PC, and will tie up with Microsoft to use its popular Office software on its handsets.

Industry observers criticized the Finnish giant for its aging product lineup and for not bringing smartphones to market quickly enough to take on their up-and-coming rivals.

Analysts interviewed by AFP agreed that Nokia had not yet found a product to challenge the iPhone as most new Nokia devices use an outdated operating system to drive their phones.

"It is going to be 2011 before they have the right software to make a really competitive product," Richard Windsor, a London-based technology analyst for Nomura Securities, told Agence France-Presse.

Its latest smartphone, the N97, has achieved modest sales so far compared to the iPhone.

Technology consultancy Gartner estimates Nokia has sold just 500,000 of them worldwide since its launch in June. Apple's new third-generation iPhone sold one million units in its first weekend on sale.

Nokia needs its new models to be a success -- smartphones, handsets with high-speed internet access, are the fastest growing segment in the mobile phone market and their higher price tags mean they carry higher profit margins than cheaper, more basic models.

The Finnish giant's share of this lucrative segment has ebbed away in recent months. In the second quarter of 2009, it sold 45 percent of all 40 million smartphones sold worldwide.

That compares to 47.4 percent of 32 million handsets at the same time last year, according to Gartner data.

"The right high-end product and an increased focus on services and content are vital for Nokia if it wants to both revamp its brand and please investors," wrote Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi in a research note to clients.

In addition to its partnership with Microsoft, Nokia will also use Linux software and work with social networking site Facebook to develop new services.

"They have realized that for certain things it makes sense to partner," Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight, told AFP.

Apple also beat Nokia in drawing in additional revenue from the sale of online applications: ringtones, videos, games and other Internet gadgets.

Its App'Store went online in July 2008 while Nokia's Ovi store launched in May this year.

"Nokia cannot create one killer product to beat Apple or Google. Nokia has to create an experience or a solution that is so compelling that a consumer says 'I like the whole proposition'," said Wood.

Nokia's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told reporters on Wednesday that these add-on services were "critical to our future" and that his company wanted to make smartphones more affordable to a wider range of people.

But that will be a hard sell in the current economic climate.

The global financial crisis has weakened demand for mobile phone sales after six years of uninterrupted growth.

Nokia, which has 1.1 billion customers worldwide, posted a 66-percent drop in net profit in the second quarter of 2009 and a nearly 25-percent decline in revenues on a 12-month basis.

In a bid to restore the company to profitability, a cost-cutting program was launched in January aimed at reducing Nokia's workforce by some 4,000.

Mother in tearful plea for Vietnam blogger's release

The mother of a blogger detained in Vietnam made a tearful plea Monday for her daughter's release after two other online writers were freed.

"Help us to get her free!" Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan told Agence France-Presse in a tearful telephone conversation from the southern coastal city of Nha Trang, where her daughter Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, has been held since Wednesday.

Quynh blogged under the name "Me Nam".

"My daughter is still detained until now. I tried to visit her this morning but the police prevented me," she said.

Quynh had written about the sensitive topic of Vietnam-China relations, her mother said.

She had blogged about a controversial bauxite mining project in the Central Highlands and also about two South China Sea archipelagos, the Paracels and Spratleys, her mother said.

The bauxite project triggered a rare public outcry, partly over security concerns because a Chinese company has been granted a major contract there.

Vietnam and China, both ideologically communist, are engaged in a boundary dispute over the Paracels and Spratleys.

Quynh's mother said that on July 20 her daughter also wore a tee shirt calling for the cancellation of the bauxite project and announcing Vietnamese sovereignty over the archipelagos.

She was accused of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, a crime which can lead to a prison term, her mother said.

A foreign diplomat, who asked not to be named, said Quynh had gone "a step further" than blogging by attempting to produce more of the tee shirts with two other online writers arrested in late August.

One of them, Bui Thanh Hieu, 37, told AFP he was released on Saturday. Hieu blogs under the name Nguoi Buon Gio (Wind Trader), and had written about the maritime dispute as well as the mining project.

The third person recently arrested, Pham Doan Trang, a journalist for prominent news website VietnamNet, has also been released, a diplomatic source said.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had called for the immediate release of Hieu and Trang.

Cable TV piracy in RP needs to be addressed: group

Local cable operators are lamenting the slow paced legal system, which is hampering the fight against cable television piracy in the country, the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia said.

"We are very unhappy with the courts. It had no real progress because the case presented to them over the last few years reached no decisions," Simon Twiston Davies, CASBAA Chief Executive Officer, said in a recent interview.

"More needs to be done on behalf of the TV industry to reinforce the importance of intellectual property rights. People who invest in content needs to be given a return on their investment," he added.

On behalf of broadcasters who own their copyrighted programs, CASBAA earlier filed a complaint against Turtle Cable, an infringing cable operator in Camarines Sur province. A year after the IPO of the Philippines served its first pay TV temporary restraining order (TRO), Turtle Cable settled the case by not airing unauthorized TV programming.

The settlement was reached as proceedings were about to enter the trial stage before the IP Philippines' Bureau of Legal Affairs. If the case had proceeded to trial, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) would have revoked Turtle Cable's operating license under the terms of a memorandum of understanding between IP Philippines and the NTC in 2007.

"We are pleased that we have had an agreement with the industry. We consider this as a sign of improvement in the Philippines. However, more needs to be done. There's a big problem in the Philippines, one which has been going on for many years now. Damages to legal operators, as well as to the international content or to those providing content, and also to the Philippine government is staggering. We would like to raise awareness on IP rights issue to the Philippine government," Davies said.

Citing data, CASBAA said pirated cable TV connections reached 990,000 last year, exceeding the number of legitimate ones at 965,000. The group added that the cost of piracy in the country has hit $94 million from only $84 million last year.

"The lack of anti-piracy enforcement remains a key obstacle. Courts are unresponsive," CASBAA said, adding that the government was also deprived of $44 million in taxes in 2008.

Piracy of pay TV signals can take place by physically tapping into individual lines, taking satellite signals without permission, or by redistributing stolen content to more homes. While it is not expected to be eradicated anytime soon, Davies said the evolving technology will certainly help in reducing cable TV piracy in the country.

"There are no forecasts yet, but there are indications. Digital subscription will probably keep everyone in check. The deployment of digital system will hopefully keep things under control and fuel legal connection," he said.

In a report, CASBAA said digitization is bad for piracy as it makes signal theft more difficult, increasing transparency. The group represents more than 130 channel programmers, pay TV operators, and technology providers in Asia.

"Digitization is good for consumers, good for the industry, good for Asian development. Given a greater choice of programming, the possibility of buying content that suits their particular interests or 'niches,' and the opportunity to view it when they want and where they want, consumers willingly buy. Building out digital networks to meet these demands helps Asian governments achieve their digital development goals. The process could be accelerated if governments relaxed regulatory constraints and improved the investment climate," CASBAA said.