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This is a subpage of Pilipinas Panorama Community/Freedom of Panorama, detailing the progress of Freedom of Panorama introduction attempts in the Philippines, serving as a timeline. This is inspired from Wikimedia South Africa's subpage "Wikimedia South Africa/Copyright Amendment Bill/Timeline".

18th Congress

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Rep. Rufus Rodriguez gives his comment on the proposal of inclusion of Freedom of Panorama in Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines

On February 4, 2021, IPOPHL Director-General Rowel Barba proposed to the House of Representatives to include Freedom of Panorama in the amendments to the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines. Then-Representative Wes Gatchalian (now city mayor of Valenzuela) filed House Bill 8620 where Freedom of Panorama to be placed under Section 184(m) of the IP Code. It was one of the three house bills aimed at modernizing the copyright law; the two others were House Bill 1597 by 1-Pacman party-list Rep. Michael Romero and House Bill 8062 by Rep. Christopher De Venecia and then-AAMBIS-Owa party-list Rep. Sharon Garin. Rep. Rufus Rodriguez expresses support for the Freedom of Panorama legal right. (Facebook Live video – 1:18:40 for the IPOPHL's mention of the legal right, 2:20:15 for Rodriguez's input)

On February 10, 2021 an online dialogue via Zoom was conducted between Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines–Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights (IPOPHL–BCRR) and some Filipino Wikimedians with Atty. Jacob Rogers of Wikimedia Foundation (Jrogers (WMF)), with Freedom of Panorama as the principal topic. House Bill No. 8620 was shown. However, IPOPHL–BCRR said that the current status ("no Freedom of Panorama") will still remain until the amendment has passed into law and the accompanying Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) refining the future Philippine Freedom of Panorama provision have been created. As copyright laws are statutory rights, according to IPOPHL–BCRR, provisions like the Freedom of Panorama must be defined or indicated in the copyright laws, and cannot be made into existence only by legal studies.

IPOPHL said on February 24, 2021 that the three copyright law amendment bills were being consolidated by a Technical Working Group of the Committee on Trade and Industry of the House of Representatives.[1]

19th Congress

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This 19th Congress, there are six pending bills in the House of Representatives seeking to amend or modernize the copyright law. These are the following (with bolded house bill numerical designations denoting the house bill containing Freedom of Panorama provision):

House Bill numerical designation Author/s Status Notes
House Bill 799 Rep. Joey Salceda pending - since 2022-07-27 FoP provision found at page 79, assigned as Section 206(m).
House Bill 888 Rep. Michael Romero of 1-Pacman party-list pending - since 2022-07-27
House Bill 2672 Rep. Christopher de Venecia pending - since 2022-08-03 FoP provision found at the bill's Section 48.
House Bill 3633 Rep. Aniela Tolentino pending - since 2022-08-17
House Bill 3838 Rep. Lex Colada of AAMBIS-Owa party-list pending - since 2022-08-24 FoP provision found at page 85, assigned as Section 203(m).
House Bill 7028 Rep. Joey Salceda Substituted by House Bill 7600 since March 14, 2023
House Bill 7600
(committee report) 		Various authors, including Rep. Joey Salceda "Approved by the House on 2023-05-22, transmitted to the Senate on 2023-05-24 and received by the Senate on 2023-05-24" Substitutes House Bill 7028.

All of the three bills containing the Freedom of Panorama provision bear the same wording as that of the now-obsolete House Bill 8620 of the previous 18th Congress. The FoP wording will be:

"The copyright in a work that is situated, otherwise than temporarily, in a public place, or in premises open to the public, is not infringed by the making of a painting, drawing, engraving, or photograph of the work, or by the inclusion of the work in a cinematograph film or in a television broadcast."

Also this 19th Congress, there are eight pending copyright law amendment bills in the Senate, one of which has a Freedom of Panorama clause.

Senate Bill numerical designation Author/s Status Notes
Senate Bill 173 Sen. Francis Tolentino pending - since 8/1/2022 Similar to House Bill 3633, aiming to protect indigenous works of folklore and cultural expressions.
Senate Bill 891 Sen. Francis Tolentino pending - since 8/31/2022 Adding copyright enforcement to digital world.
Senate Bill 1734 Sen. Imee Marcos pending - since 1/30/2023 Proposed to extend copyright terms to align with international norms, most notably extending posthumous copyright to 70 years (from current 50 years) and applied art copyright to 50 years from making (from current 25 years).
Senate Bill 2150 Sen. Jinggoy Estrada pending - since 5/15/2023 Similar to both House Bills 7028 and 7600, in empowering Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to restrict or block access to cyber platforms (like websites and apps) that host pirated or copyvio content, like pirated films, e-books, and software products.
Senate Bill 2326 Sen. Loren Legarda pending - since 8/2/2023 Similar to House Bills 799, 2672, and 3838, seeking for modernization of the IP Code. A Freedom of Panorama provision is provided, with same wording as those of the said House Bills, and is found at the Senate Bill's Section 83.
Senate Bill 2385 Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla, Jr. pending - since 8/7/2023 Similar to both House Bills 7028 and 7600, in empowering Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to restrict or block access to cyber platforms (like websites and apps) that host pirated or copyvio content, like pirated films, e-books, and software products.
Senate Bill 2645 Sen. Mark Villar pending - since 5/6/2024 Similar to both House Bills 7028 and 7600, in empowering Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to restrict or block access to cyber platforms (like websites and apps) that host pirated or copyvio content, like pirated films, e-books, and software products.
Senate Bill 2651 Sen. Joel Villanueva pending - since 5/6/2024 Giving the Intellectual Property Office the ability to block websites hosting copyright-infringing and pirated content.
2023

The House of Representatives' Committee on Trade and Industry conducted its initial deliberation on the six House Bills on February 14, 2023, Valentine's Day. (Facebook Live video) Related online articles: from The Philippine Star and from the Philippine News Agency.

IPOPHL published an article, entitled Updating IP Code for stronger protection of IP assets emphasized at 2nd Creative Industry Summit, on March 10, 2023 in relation to the initial deliberation last February 14. Important excerpt: "Indeed, we truly feel that the 19th Congress is taking this call to heart as our honorable lawmakers in the House of Representatives, particularly the Committee on Trade & Industry Chaired by Cong.  Marvey A. Mariño,  recently initiated the consolidation of all bills related to the IP Code amendments and approved House Bill (HB) 7028 sponsored by Cong.  Joey S. Salceda, giving IPOPHL the power to issue site blocking orders to be implemented by internet service providers," the IPOPHL chief added. The four separate bills filed to amend the IP Code and now being consolidated are HB 799 by Cong. Salceda, HB 888 by Cong. Michael L. Romero, HB 2672 by Cong. Christopher "Toff" V.P. De Venecia, HB 3838 by Cong. Lex Anthony Cris A. Colada.

On May 22, 2023, the House of Representatives approved House Bill 7600 (that substituted House Bill 7028) on third and final reading. It seeks "to strengthen the powers and functions of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), and amend the Intellectual Property Code (IP Code) to adapt to recent advancements in technology and further address piracy and counterfeiting."[2] This bill, which does not have Freedom of Panorama clause, gains the strongest support from concerned stakeholders, including Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) Asia Pacific,[3] Citizen Watch Philippines,[4] and Globe Telecom.[5]

A June 14, 2023 BusinessWorld Online article mentions the three pending intellectual property code amendment bills – House Bills 799, 2672, and 3838. The bills themselves contain FoP clause, though FoP is not the topic of the article. The article though states that these bills are vital for the music sector: "There are at least three bills filed with the House of Representatives proposing to further amend the IP Code. These bills uniformly define a 'mark' as 'any sign or combination of signs,' without any qualification as to whether the sign is visible or not. As of today, the bills are pending before the House Committee on Trade and Industry." According to the article, the current version of the law only protects visual marks as trademarks, and does not protect intangible marks like sound marks as trademarks. Many other countries such as Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States already protect sound marks as trademarks. The passage of the three bills (or a consolidated version of these three bills) is sought to finally protect intangible marks like sound marks.[6] Inferring from this, the three bills not only provide Freedom of Panorama for Wikimedians, but also a reform on trademark eligibility so that intangible marks like sound marks can be protected too, and not only visual or tangible marks.

2024

Various entertainment and creative sectors called, in March 2024, for the immediate passage of HB 7600's counterpart bills in the Senate: Senate Bills 2150 and 2385,[7] both of which do not contain a FoP provision.

The Senate resumed discussions, on April 30, 2024, regarding the proposed bills that will allow blocking of websites hosting infringing and/or pirated content. A technical working group session would be held "to consolidate the proposed versions of the bill and finalize a committee report."[8] Again, all proposed site-blocking bills do not contain the FoP provision.

Freedom of Panorama presentation made by Pilipinas Panorama Community, used in the 2024 conference of ESEAP

May 10–12, 2024: ESEAP Conference 2024 was held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, attended by Wikimedians from countries of ESEAP Wikimedia region (East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific). Among the topics discussed there is the Freedom of Panorama, with Pilipinas Panorama Community presenting one of the presentations. See also: ESEAP Conference 2024/Submissions/Free the Freedom of Panorama in ESEAP.

In May 2024, advocacy group Citizenwatch Philippines urged the swift passage of site-blocking provisions. Senator Mark Villar, head of the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship, gave his support to the passage of Senate Bills 2150 and 2385.[9] Again, both bills do not contain any FoP provision. Similar calls were also voiced by the consumer advocacy group Bantay Konsyumer, Kalsada, Kuryente (BK3)[10] and the think tank Stratbase ADR Institute.[11]

Senate Bills 2150 and 2385 were referred to the Senate Technical Working Group in June 2024.[12] Again, both are focused on anti-piracy and site blocking, with no FoP provision.

July 23, 2024 (Tuesday), a day after the 2024 State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) seeks to have the copyright law amended to address the challenges posed by digital age. According to DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual, "To support the startups, we need a strong intellectual property law. We have an existing one and I'm going to present to the President, hopefully soon, the proposed amendments to this law so we can strengthen the enforcement of the law and the further protection of intellectual property owners against piracy and counterfeiting." DTI Undersecretary Jose Edgardo Sunico adds, "This will create a safer digital environment, foster innovation, and support economic growth while ensuring we meet international standards."[13]

Persistent calls from stakeholders for urgent passage of the aforementioned bills (which do not have FoP clause, focusing on combating online piracy and infringements) continue in August 2024[14][15] and in October 2024.[16]


For the community discussion, visit Talk:Pilipinas Panorama Community/Freedom of Panorama#Possible suggestions for FOP in the Philippines

References

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  1. ↑ "IPOPHL lauds consolidation of House bills to modernize IP Code, identifies 17 priority areas for amendment". 2021-02-24. 
  2. ↑ Cruz, RG (2023-05-22). "House OKs bill strengthening PH Intellectual Property Office". ABS-CBN News. 
  3. ↑ Bautista, Mario (2023-06-14). "GMA's anti-piracy campaign gets warm welcome from global industry leaders". Journal Online. 
  4. ↑ Argosino, Faith (2023-08-08). "Group pushes for IP Code amendments to boost fight vs online piracy". Inquirer.net. 
  5. ↑ Globe Telecom, Inc. (2023-09-26). "Globe Unites with IPOPHL, Major ISPs in Landmark MOU vs Online Content Piracy". 
  6. ↑ Valdecantos-Javelosa, Clarisse Paulina (2023-06-14). "Are sound marks protected under Philippine law?". BusinessWorld Online. 
  7. ↑ "Creative and entertainment personalities call on Senate to boost Intellectual Property Code, enable online site blocking". Manila Bulletin. 2024-03-18. Retrieved 2024-04-12. 
  8. ↑ Oxales, Orlando (2024-05-06). "'Site Blocking' bill finally moves in Senate". Manila Standard. Retrieved 2024-05-30. 
  9. ↑ "Swift passage of anti-piracy bills urged". The Philippine Star. 2024-05-15. Retrieved 2024-05-30. 
  10. ↑ Calalo, Arlie O. (2024-05-23). "Group to Senate: Expedite passage of bills vs online piracy". The Manila Times. Retrieved 2024-05-30. 
  11. ↑ Casucian, Jiselle Anne (2024-05-14). "Think tank backs revision of IP Code to fight online piracy". GMA Integrated News. Retrieved 2024-05-30. 
  12. ↑ "Anti-piracy bills referred to Senate panel TWG". GMA Integrated News. 2024-06-05. Retrieved 2024-06-08. 
  13. ↑ Crismundo, Kris (2024-07-23). "DTI chief eyes amendments to intellectual property law". Philippine News Agency. Retrieved 2024-07-24. 
  14. ↑ "Lawmakers urged: Act on proposed IP Code amendments". The Daily Tribune. 2024-04-14. Retrieved 2024-08-30. 
  15. ↑ "Legislation for revised IP Code pushed". The Philippine Star. 2024-08-26. Retrieved 2024-08-30. 
  16. ↑ Serquiña, Celine (2024-10-17). "Stiffer measures vs online piracy pushed". GMA Integrated News. Retrieved 2024-10-24. 
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