IPOPHL issues new rules on site blocking

Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Director General Rowel Barba hopes to follow the success of Indonesia and cut down the number of consumers who access pirating services by 50%, following the release of new site blocking rules.

In a statement released Sunday, IPOPHL said Barba has signed Memorandum Circular 23-025, or the Rules on Voluntary Administrative Site Blocking, on Wednesday, September 20.

Under the measure, a rights holder or a duly authorized representative will first have to file a written request with the IP Rights Enforcement Office (IEO) and pay the corresponding filing fees.

“We encourage rights holders to optimize this tool and protect the value of your creative assets,” Barba said.

The application will then be evaluated by an officer who will in turn be given 10 working days to submit an Evaluation Report, carrying a recommendation on the issuance or non-issuance of a site blocking order.

The recommendation will then be elevated to the Supervising Director or Deputy Director General for approval within five working days.

The blocking request will then be served to the administrator of the concerned website. A copy of the request will be uploaded on the IPOPHL website should the administrator be unable to be contacted.

The administrator will then be given seven calendar days from receipt or publication to file a protest, which will be evaluated by an IEO officer within seven working days.

Should there be no protest, the site-blocking request will be issued to ISPs which in turn must enforce within 48 hours through either disabling access to the entire domain name systems (DNS); IP addresses; uniform resource locators (URLs) for targeted websites, or through alternative means.

“The rules are a result of years-long work with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and several internet service provides (ISPs) who refuse to sit down and watch while our creative industry suffers,” Barba said.

“With the site-blocking mechanism soon up and running, IPOPHL, as ex-officio member of the Philippine Creative Industries Development Council, is ecstatic to say the Philippines now has an essential tool to protect the creativity that drives or economy and defines our cultural landscape,” he added. — BM, GMA Integrated News