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AFTER
two years, government units banded under the Philippine
Antipiracy Team (PAPT) remains reactive to the trade in
bootleg copies of computer software, video and audio
media.
Col.
Noel de los Reyes of the Criminal Investigation and
Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police
(PNP) told the BusinessMirror this is so “because the
PAPT is still young and still evolving. We’re still
reactive.”
Reyes,
chief of PNP’s CIDG-Anti-fraud and Commercial Crimes
Division, spoke on the sidelines of a press briefing
Tuesday where he bared the group’s accomplishment since
it was formed in August 2005.
The PAPT,
a government-led initiative of the PNP, the National
Bureau of Investigation and the Optical Media Board, has
been trying to stem the manufacture, sale and use of
products violating the country’s intellectual property
law.
Reyes
said in two years’ time, the group accounted for the
arrest of 101 perpetrators, served 701 search warrants
(470 in January to August 2007, from 231 in the full
year of 2006), and confiscated items and equipment worth
P406 million.
“We also
filed 20 cases last year and, as of end-August 13,”
Reyes said, adding that all cases are being heard in
different courts across the country.
“We’re
expecting that to increase based on new areas we’re
targeting, but in the areas where we engaged the
previous years, we should be expecting lesser numbers of
cases,” he added.
Reyes
specifically cited
Cebu and Davao,
where, he said, the team raided eight Internet cafés
(five in
Cebu, three in
Davao).
“It is a
mistake of business to downplay the effects of
confiscation because the worth of the hardware is
minimal; usually, the data stored in these computers are
more valuable than the sets,” NBI deputy director for
special investigation services Victor Bessat said.
OMB
executive director and lawyer Rosendo B. Meneses said
that his group was able to confiscate bootleg digital
video discs, digital audio compact discs and equipment
worth P634 million as of end-August this year.
This,
Meneses added, was P3 million more compared with the
worth of goods or products they confiscated last year.
Reyes
said the PAPT would continue its operations but study
how “we could be more proactive.”
He cited
that a step is writing letters to companies, computer
schools and establishments to encourage owners and
operators to cooperate with the PAPT.
“We
write and notify them to look into the computer software
they’re using,” he said. He added they also offer the
group’s services for free testing if the company is
using original software.
Reyes
told the BusinessMirror there’s no way unscrupulous
individuals could use the letter for extortion because
these letters are signed individually and only by Police
Director General Oscar C. Calderon.
“In any
case, they can call us to verify the information in that
letter,” Reyes said.
Bessat
said the PAPT has embarked on this method to “establish
fair competition and is one way of leveling the business
field.” |
