MANILA, Philippines -- A bill seeking to amend the Intellectual Property Code to minimize if not totally eradicate piracy, especially through the Internet, has been filed at the House of Representatives.

"The Internet has become an information highway that has also bred a new and awesome breed of pirates who utilize this technology in stealing intellectual property and infringing intellectual property rights in cyber space," the bill’s author Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez said in a statement Friday.

Rodriguez said the sale of pirated software, music and movies in CDs and DVDs have contributed to the rise in the violations of property rights.

The Philippines’ recording and entertainment software industries have lost P3.465 billion to intellectual property piracy, he said.

Citing figures from year 2000, Rodriguez said the 61 percent piracy rate in the software industry has resulted in a P170-million loss in revenues for the government and P1.4 billion for private companies.

Rodriguez said that in the same year, the sound recording industry and the entertainment software industry lost P65 million and P2 billion respectively due to piracy.

"Given this situation it is high time to retool the prevailing law by sharpening its focus, enlarging its protective coverage, and reinforcing its potency to provide meaningful relief to victims of intellectual thievery," he said.

Rodriguez said the proposed amendments were meant “to further protect and secure the exclusive rights of scientists, inventors, artists and other gifted citizens to their intellectual property and creation and likewise license their own works online.”

He also noted that the Philippines, as a member of the World Trade Organization and a party to the Berne Convention, must recognize and protect intellectual works distributed in different channels, including the Internet.

The Berne Convention is a world treaty that protects literary and artistic works.