READ THE CYBERCRIME PREVENTION ACT FIRST:

A title that should speak for itself so that we can do more than just rant 
By Cheeno Marlo Sayuno 


The dark age of the Philippine cybersphere, they say, has come.

Netizens, bloggers, tweeps, and everybody who lurks in the Internet were shook by this quake brought about by the Cybercrime Prevention Act (CCPA) of 2012, a nightmare we never thought would take shape in reality. While the people of the United States were able to thwart the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), we Filipinos are unfortunate to be shackled with this dreadful act that would definitely bring forth changes that we never imagined possible.

BACKGROUNDER

The CCPA (Republic Act No. 10175) is “an act defining cybercrime, providing for the prevention, investigation, suppression, and the imposition of penalties.” It encompasses various Internet issues that have been problematic since time immemorial. It addresses the issues of cybersex, identity theft, child pornography, forgery, and even libel.

While I am urging you to read the whole act for yourself and chew every bit of it with understanding, I would mention some of the provisions in the law. With the implementation of this act today, cyber squatting will be illegal. You are not supposed to use the name of another as your domain name. You are not allowed to use a domain name that is “similar, identical, or confusingly similar to an existing trademark.” You are not allowed to use URLs that are “acquired without right or with intellectual property interests in it.”

Say goodbye to your cam-to-cam days. Cybersex will be rightfully punished. The police will have the right to access your recorded sessions. With that, say goodbye to your right of privacy. The police and the law-implementing body on CCPA, who will be receiving Php 50M annually toward the implemetation of this act, will have all the right to access your most personal information.

Libel in traditional forms of media is punishable. Libel in the Internet will have heavier punishment than that. If you usually receive advertisements in your mobile phone and emails, you can sue them. Downloading, uploading, and posting of contents that are not yours are punishable as well.

While the CCPA has good intentions, unfortunately, some of the provisions are abridging other laws, most especially on the freedom of expression. The United Nations is suggesting that we decriminalize libel, since it somehow conflicts with freedom of expression and access to information. Now, we are taking the case of libel into a grander platform, that is, the Internet.

ACTUAL POINT

If you would scroll down your dashboards, timelines, and newsfeeds, you would notice how they are all pestered with rants on the CCPA. While there is something to protest about this, somehow, the problem is that people are blabbing their hate without reading first the whole act. How can we have sound judgment and how can we express ourselves better if we don’t really know what is actually happening? For one, I am not really inclined with laws and current affairs and stuff, and I know that a lot of people find reading about these things boring because that is exactly how I feel. But sometimes, we have to try researching first if we want to rant about how much we hate things. It is not good to express opinions that are full of hate but contain nothing more than the actual hate.

The problem is, when we don’t know much about the issue, we tend to bark at the wrong tree and address the wrong problems. We try to make it appear as if we are very opinionated and we say the right things, but others will know that you’re doing the exact opposite. Worse, if we are influential enough to make people believe in what we say and what we are saying is actually wrong, imagine what problems it could bring. People are being misinformed because those who have the power and the influence to inform others are doing it wrong.

Another thing that made me personally sad about is when I saw this person post about his being not a Filipino anymore, given that the CCPA has already been implemented. Come on! So, if the Filipino government is taking away from its people  their rights, is that enough reason to renounce your being part of this country? Joke or not, it is saddening how people could actually say that. Whatever happens,  however the government treats us, I think it is unfair to let go of our nationalism and our being Filipinos. We can’t give up just like that.

Thus, with all things said and with our freedom to express continually being limited and censored, I wish us all the best. I wish that we get grounded to our stand and beliefs. I wish that, before we fight, we learn first the rules and the battlefield. I wish that we don’t just rant but examine things first, so that we can be more sound in our decisions and so that we can persuade more people to join our cause. I wish that we don’t give up. I wish that, instead of not becoming Filipinos, we feel more our blood so that we can be invigorated to join people who are fighting for our rights. We are the people of the nation. If there are no people to be ruled over, there would be no government to rule. Thus, we have power. We should, in moments like this, use it very very well.

Freedom!