Going back to the November text message involving the alleged GMA Charity Foundation, the text has been circulating even prior to November 2005. In August 2005, a certain person from Antipolo, Rizal even called up the texter’s number, and later posted a comment at the government’s dot-gov-dot-ph website. The comment reads:

“I would just want to inquire about the text message that my brother got. It says that I won in a raffle by the GMA CHARITY FOUNDATION. What is this all about? Is this really true? Coz the amoutnt hey mentioned is quite big. We called up the number and we were told that they got the number from my service provide which is GLOBE. We called a certain ATTY. LARRY AGUIRRE and were told to call another person which is ATTY. MANUEL NANDING and he gave the address where we can go to give documents about us. #169 salcedo village, makati city. i just want to know if this is a valid promo coz they have a dti number (dti no. 00110). if not i want to let the government and the others aware of this illegal operation. thank you and god bless!” ^[1]

The scam is similar to the scam reported by the Philippine Star on 16 June 2005. DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Jose S. Brillantes said therein that the text messages name drop Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Rafael Buenaventura, and claim that the receiver has won two million Philippine pesos and has to remit 800 US dollars to be able to receive the prize money. The text message reads “Congrats your cell roaming no. had won P2 million during the electronic raffle drawn from the Central Bank of The Philippines. Call now Governor Rafael Buenaventura at this number: +639156907234,” according to Donnie Fetalino, Attaché and Communications Officer of the Philippine Embassy in Cairo. ^[2] Recently, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) warned OFWs against a new text scam circulating in Canada. The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver reported, resulting from the inquiry of two Filipinos as the veracity of the text message, that the text message reads: “This is an exclusive for OCWs and OFWs. Your roaming number was very lucky to receive $40,000 from CBP. This is a new project of GMA and Western Union.” The Consulate General contacted Western Union to verify the authenticity of the message and the bank informed the mission that there was no such promotion or project. ^[3] Simply, the would-be victim receives a text message announcing he has won in a raffle sponsored by BSP (or Pagcor or the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) with prizes ranging from one million pesos to two million pesos. If the victim responds and calls a telephone number given by the sender, an alleged Governor Buenaventura will reply. The victim will be instructed to first pay a ten-percent withholding tax before he can claim his prize. ^[4]

Calling the mobile numbers involved after a certain period of time would solicit network notification that “The number you have dialed is either unattended or out of the coverage area. Please try your call later.” Such fact is quite predictable as that the mobile numbers used in the scam would be using pre-paid SIMs. In the November text message, for example, the sender used a +63921 number; i.e. 63 is the Philippines’ country code, 921 involves Smart Buddy subscribers – a pre-paid class of mobile phone subscribers. For a measly sum of less than four United States Dollars (US$4) – the cost of the prepaid SIM being one hundred ninety (P190) pesos only – and the anonymity that is maintained in purchasing the pre-paid SIM, to perpetuate fraud in this manner would, for some, be lucrative.

The scam works in the same manner as how an “advance fee fraud” works. ^[5] It is the SMS-based equivalent of the Nigerian money transfer fraud, Nigerian scam or 419 scam, however it may be called. Herein, the con artist would send out text messages similar to those above. If any recipient would express his interest by texting back and/or inquiring into the details of the promotion, the sender would cause the recipient to produce certain amounts of money – usually 10% of the total amount – for the sender to facilitate the release of the prize money or goods. One way of sending the amounts is through bank deposit or transfers. This method of payment, however, is risky to the con artist inasmuch as certain documents need to be presented by the con artist-bank account holder to the bank. Still, one victim was reported to have fallen to such scam. The victim, who comes from the province, said he was duped into depositing twenty thousand pesos (P20,000), as tax for prize money, to a certain bank account number. ^[6]

The recipient could also cause the transfer of money by sending the PIN of pre-paid cards, as to credit loads, to the sender’s mobile phone. In a case reported by the Inquirer,

“Victims are told to send the PIN codes of newly-purchased cellphone cards to join a raffle and get a chance to win 1.5 million pesos to 2.5 million pesos. A victim who complained to BSP admitted that he bought 3,000 pesos worth of pre-paid cards hoping it would increase his chances of winning. Needless to say, unsuspecting victims who divulged their PIN codes were not aware that the very same pre-paid cards were being used by the scam artists to send text messages to other would-be preys.” ^[7]

Further, the sender can extend his fraudulent scheme by claiming only eight out of the ten PINs actually sent, for example, were ever received by him, or that two or three of the PINs sent do not work and that the recipient should substitute those PINs for him to actually facilitate the release of the prize. No amount of pre-paid credit loads or bank deposits would bring the sender to facilitate the release of the prize, as there is no actual prize existing. The con artist can dispose of his pre-paid SIM if it is apparent that no one else of potential victims would be interested in falling for the scam, or if he/she sensed that law enforcers, if ever, would be on his trail.

Although the scam may be reported to the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of investigation and the National Telecommunications Commission for their appropriate investigation and action, the capture of the fraudster would prove to be difficult as there are no records to determine the person behind the pre-paid number used in the scam. Unlike in post-paid accounts, personal or company ID cards, proof of billing, and other documents are necessary to establish capacity to pay pre-existing obligations. These documents form part of the records of a post-paid account. Although at least 200 million text or SMS messages are sent every day in the Philippines, – more than two for every Filipino and earns the country its reputation as the world’s SMS capital – Filipinos still do not have to give their identities when buying pre-paid phone cards. ^[8] No document is required in purchasing pre-paid SIM. It can be bought off the shelf. There is no limitation from buying three SIMs from the three major mobile carriers in the Philippines, i.e. in alphabetical order, Globe, Smart, and Sun, even if the person purchasing has only one set of mobile phone. “The main attraction of pre-paid is that these are low-income countries and subscribers want to control their spending,” said Karen Ang, a Bangkok-based telecoms analyst for Citigroup. “But being able to buy a pre-paid card without giving up a lot of information about yourself is also an attraction.” ^[9]

Text-based fraud can be reduced if regulation, not ban, of pre-paid SIM purchase is enforced. In other parts of the Asia-Pacific region, where similar incidents have occurred, governments have set up stringent requirements as to their registration. Last year, Taiwan, fed up with con-men using the cover of anonymity to separate gullible people from their money with scams ranging from simple credit-card tricks to bogus kidnappings, sought to identify pre-paid phone users. Thailand moved to register users of pre-paid phones in May, describing it as part of efforts to stop terrorists using mobile phones to set off bombs. Malaysia ordered phone companies to register all holders of pre-paid services after text-messaging gossip-mongers hit a raw nerve with false talk that the premier’s ailing wife had died. Shanghai, China’s richest city with 20 million people, required registration of pre-paid users last September to tackle text-message fraud. ^[10] Most recently, and effective 1 November 2005, Singapore has required new and existing prepaid card users to register their numbers. ^[11]

Fraud through mobile phone text has been reported in the Philippines since 2003; and in light of the possibilities of text messaging in sowing wild rumors, perpetrating crime and possibly, triggering bombs; it is a big question why the Philippine government has not pursued any action towards the registration of pre-paid numbers. Unlike prior measure to regulate text messaging in itself – such as to regulation of content, and matters of taxation – that were subject to stiff opposition by consumers, a regulation of pre-paid numbers – not with the Government, but with the respective mobile phone service providers – has not been made, even if there is compulsive proof of the need to regulate such.

The Philippines chronically lags behind its neighbors, and the matters involving consumer convenience and fraud prevention are not exempted from said statement. The Department of Trade Industry (DTI) permit numbers do not serve as a deterrent against consumer fraud as no one is aware of the official list of permits actually issued by the DTI as to promotions. There is no repository, like in the Internet, to check whether a promotion being floated to the public is what it purports itself to be, or if State-sanctioned. The Government should provide for the prevention of fraud, not just to prosecute it when the fraudster make the mistake of making himself identifiable.

Further, the Philippines boasts of its resolve to root out terrorism, but it has not, as apparent as it has been identified by its neighboring countries, there is no regulation that would reduce the mobility of malefactors / terrorists through the use of communication tools, or prevent malefactors from using communication devices as triggers for indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population. Its gestures towards anti-terrorism are confined in grand strokes towards a defective national legislation, intentionally oblivious to simple suppletory solutions such as that of registering pre-paid numbers.

Until the simple regulation would occur, the “P” in pre-paid would more likely lean towards the possibility of being punked.

Endnotes

1. Gov.ph Home - Forum. www.gov.ph, the Official Government Portal of the Republic of the Philippines. Retrieved 4 November 2005. [back]
2. DFA warns Filipinos Abroad of Text Scam using Central Bank. 16 June 2005. Philippine Headline News Online. Retrieved 30 October 2005. [back]
3. DFA warns OFWs on text scam in Canada. ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 30 November 2005. [back]
4. Giron, Marietta Velasco. “Beware of text scams and their variants.” 9 July 2003. The Consumer, Inquirer News Service. Retrieved 4 November 2005. [back]
5. See Dot.Con article, Philippine IT Law Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2. [back]
6. Giron, Marietta Velasco. “Beware of text scams and their variants.” Ibid. [back]
7. Ibid. [back]
8. “Asia wants SMS genie back in its bottle.” 5 September 2005. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 October 2005. [back]
9. Ibid. [back]
10. Ibid. [back]
11. Singapore to register pre-paid SIM cards. Philippine Star. 23 October 2005, pp. 1, 4. [back]

Credit Card Fraud

Credit Card Fraud is the most common of Internet fraud. Information used to pursue the same may be acquired from retailers, whether online or offline; from companies’ databases which have been compromised; from schemes like phishing; etc. Using credit cards online is inherently insecure, as information acquired in “secure transactions” are decrypted into plain text for processing. ^[2] Still, some would argue that the safest way to purchase items via the Internet is by credit card because one can often dispute the charges if something is wrong. ^[3]

Prevention.

1. Make sure you are purchasing merchandise from a reputable source. Do not judge a person/company by their web sites. Just because an individual or company has a professional-looking web site does not mean it is legitimate. Web sites can be created in just a few days; and after a short period of taking money, a site can vanish without a trace. Do your homework on the individual or company to ensure that they are legitimate. Check out other web sites regarding the person/company you plan to transact.
2. Try to obtain a physical address rather than merely a post office box and a phone number, call the seller to see if the number is correct and working. Check with the Better Business Bureau from the seller’s area. Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies from outside your own country.
3. Send the potential seller e-mail to see if they have an active e-mail address and be wary of sellers who use free e-mail services where a credit card was not required to open the account. Consider not purchasing from sellers who would not provide you with this type of information.
4. Do not give out your credit card number(s) online unless the site is a secure and reputable site. Do not trust a site just because it claims to be secure. Sometimes a tiny icon of a padlock appears to symbolize a higher level of security to transmit data. This icon is not a guarantee of a secure site, but might provide you some assurance. Still, before using the site, check out the security/ encryption software it uses. Make sure the transaction is secure when you electronically send your credit card numbers.
5. Be cautious when responding to special offers (especially through unsolicited e-mail).
6. You should also keep a list of all your credit cards and account information along with the card issuer’s contact information. If anything looks suspicious or you lose your credit card(s) you should contact the card issuer immediately. ^[4]

Advance Fee Fraud

Advance fee fraud (the Nigerian money transfer fraud, Nigerian scam or 419 scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that it violates), is a fraudulent scheme to extract money from victims after making them believe they will get an immense fortune. Victims are requested to pay an upfront fee before their purported fortune is released. ^[5]

Origin. Originally known as the “Spanish Prisoner Letter”, the scam is a confidence game dating back to 1588. In its original form, the con artist tells his victim (the mark) that he is in correspondence with a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain under a false identity. The alleged prisoner cannot reveal his identity without serious repercussions, and thus supposedly rely on the con artist to raise money to secure his release. The con artist offers to let the mark supply some of the money, with a promise that he will be rewarded generously when the prisoner returns both financially and by being married to the prisoner’s beautiful daughter. However, once the mark has turned over his money, he learns that further difficulties have arisen, requiring more money, until the mark is cleaned out and the game ends. ^[6]

The association with Nigeria was due to the massive proliferation of such confidence tricks from that since the mid-eighties. In the latter form, the schemers contacted mainly heads of companies and church officials through ordinary postal mail. The use of e-mail spam, instant messaging, and even text messaging for the initial contacts has led to other persons also being targeted, as the cost to the scammers to make initial contact is much lower. ^[7] The Nigerian Money Transfer Fraud operates in the following manner: The potential victim receives a letter or fax from an alleged “official” representing a foreign government or agency. An offer is made to transfer millions of dollars in “over invoiced contract” funds into the potential victim’s personal bank account. The potential victim is encouraged to travel overseas to complete the transaction; is requested to provide blank company letterhead forms, banking account information, telephone/fax numbers. The potential victim receives numerous documents with official looking stamps, seals and logo testifying to the authenticity of the proposal (electronic documents over Internet). Eventually potential victim must provide up-front or advance fees for various taxes, attorney fees, transaction fees or bribes. ^[8] The original medium for this scam was through mailers, it was in the late 1990s that the Internet was extensively used for the purpose.

Variance. One variant involves an alleged lawyer-con artist, representing the estate of some long-lost relative the potential victim the latter never knew he or she had (as the potential victim’s surname will be inserted into the e-mail message). The con artist will claim to have gone to a lot of trouble to find the victim in order to give him or her a share of the millions of dollars available if the potential victim will forward his or her bank account information to the con artist. ^[9]

Another variant involves the offers of con artists to buy some expensive item which the potential victim has advertised, by official, certified, bank or cashier’s check. The check will have an “accidentally” or mutually agreed higher value than the price of the item, so the con artist can ask the victim to wire the extra money to some third party as soon as the check clears. The check typically clears after one or two days, but the fact that it is counterfeit is not detected until several days or weeks later, by which time the victim has sent the item and the “additional money” to the con artist and his representative. Most banks will hold the victim accountable for the value of the counterfeit check. ^[10]

Another variant pretends to be a “winning notification” from a lottery company, requesting payment in advance to collect the sum that the potential victim has “won”. ^[11] This variant is prevalent in the Philippines or against Filipinos ^[12] through SMS text messaging.

Other forms of 4-1-9 schemes include: c.o.d. of goods or services, real estate ventures, purchases of crude oil at reduced prices, beneficiary of a will, recipient of an award and paper currency conversion. ^[13]

Example.

Request for urgent business relationship

First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and ‘Top Secret’. I am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude involving a pending transaction requiring maximum confidence.

We are top official of the federal government contract review panel who are interested in importation of goods into our country with funds which are presently trapped in Nigeria. In order to commence this business we solicit your assistance to enable us transfer into your account the said trapped funds.

The source of this fund is as follows; during the last military regime here in Nigeria, the government officials set up companies and awarded themselves contracts which were grossly over-invoiced in various ministries. The present civilian government set up a contract review panel and we have identified a lot of inflated contract funds which are presently floating in the central bank of Nigeria ready for payment.

However, by virtue of our position as civil servants and members of this panel, we cannot acquire this money in our names. I have therefore, been delegated as a matter of trust by my colleagues of the panel to look for an overseas partner into whose account we would transfer the sum of us$21,320,000.00(twenty one million, three hundred and twenty thousand U.S dollars). Hence we are writing you this letter. We have agreed to share the money thus; 1. 20% for the account owner 2. 70% for us (the officials) 3. 10% to be used in settling taxation and all local and foreign expenses. It is from the 70% that we wish to commence the importation business.

Please note that this transaction is 100% safe and we hope to commence the transfer latest seven (7) banking days from the date of the receipt of the following information by Tel/Fax; 234-1-7740449, your company’s signed, and stamped letterhead paper the above information will enable us write letters of claim and job description respectively. This way we will use your company’s name to apply for payment and re-award the contract in your company’s name.

We are looking forward to doing this business with you and solicit your confidentiality in this transaction. Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter using the above Tel/fax numbers. I will send you detailed information of this pending project when I have heard from you.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Clement Okon

Note; please quote this reference number (ve/s/09/99) in all your responses. ^[14]

Prevention.

1. Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. Be skeptical also of entities offering prizes that require you to shell out money or any equivalent to allow the processing of your winnings, among others.
2. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
3. Guard your account information carefully. ^[15]

Phishing

One of the popular fraudulent practices being done online today is “phishing.” Phishing (also “carding” and “spoofing”) is “a form of social engineering, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message.” ^[16] Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers’ personal identity data and financial account credentials. ^[17] Phishing is the art of getting personal information, usually in the form of usernames and passwords, from individuals. It is also a form of Social Engineering which is defined as “the art and science of getting people to comply to your wishes.” ^[18]

Fraudsters behind the fishing use spam messages masquerading as banks or online payment facilities. They also generate pop-up messages – through a website or through certain software that was installed related to the service – that claims to be from the a business organization that one usually deals with. The message may ask one to “update,” “validate,” or “confirm” your account information. Some phishing emails threaten a dire consequence if one does not respond. ^[19] Some fraudsters place the text of a legitimate site link in the email but actually links to their own fake site. The fraudster’s fake website replicates the legitimate web site as to its code and graphics, completely fooling a victim in navigating through a scam site. The scams rely more on persuasive psychological trickery than on technology. ^[20] The classic phishing scams seem to recur with little variation, such as “Your account is about to expire,” the sender of the e-mail warns. “Click on the link and resubmit your credit card information to avoid any loss of service.” ^[21] The message may also provide the following messages: “We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised, please click the link below and confirm your identity”; or “During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information. Please click here to update and verify your information.” ^[22] Phishing may also be a means for a fraudster to commit identity theft.

Origin. The term “phishing” arose from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to “fish” for users’ financial information and passwords. ^[23] It was coined by crackers attempting to steal AOL accounts during the mid 1990s. A cracker would mimic an AOL staff member then would send a message entitled, for example, “verify your account” or “confirm billing information”, to acquire the AOL’s user’s password, among other information, so as to allow the former to use the AOL account for the former’s benefit or other criminal acts. ^[24]

Prevalence. Washington Post reported that “[s]ince May 2003, nearly 11 million recipients of phishing e-mail clicked on the links. Of those, 1.8 million recalled filling out the information requested. Phishing attacks grew 28 percent from May 2004 to May 2005. About 73 million adult e-mail users reported more than 50 phishing e-mails during the 12-month period. 2.42 million adults reported losing money because of phishing attacks. Victims said their banks and credit card companies took the biggest hits. Victims recovered 87 percent of their funds. Major U.S. Internet service providers reported 150 to 200 uniquely identifiable phishing attacks against their brands. Pay Pal and eBay are the top spoofed sites. Citibank is the primary bank target for phishing scams.” ^[25] As of September 2005, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), the number of unique phishing reports received in September was 13562, the number of unique phishing sites received in September was 5259, the number of brands hijacked by phishing campaigns in September was 106, the number of brands comprising the top 80% of phishing campaigns in September was 6, the country hosting the most phishing websites in September was the United States, Phishing which contains some form of target name in URL amounted to 50 % of total attacks, phishing which provides no hostname but only IP address amounted to 34 % of total attacks, percentage of sites not using port 80 amount to 8 % of total attacks. The United States remains the on the top of the list of phishing hosts with 31.22%, with the top 10 breakdown as follows; China: 12.13%, Republic of Korea: 10.91%, Germany: 3.16%, Canada: 2.97%, Japan: 2.44%, France: 2.31%, Poland: 2.24%, Brazil: 1.98%, Romania: 1.98% . In September 2005, the APWG witnessed several new phishing attacks which utilized people’s willingness to assist during times of desperation; the attacks being against The Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Hurricane Katrina Donations, and Hurricane Rita Donations. ^[26]

Variance. “Spear phishing,” targets members of a particular organization and the sender would claim to be its e-mail provider. The sender will prompt you to download special software, which could install spyware or adware. Spyware and adware would record personal information later. ^[27]

Examples. The following are examples of phishing e-mails.

Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 07:35:28 -0300
From: Suntrust Billing Department
To: Abnelson
Subject: Failure to confirm your records may result in your account suspension.

Dear valued SunTrust member,

Due to concerns, for the safety and integrity of the online banking community we have issued the following warning message.

It has come to our attention that your account information needs to be confirmed due to inactive customers, fraud and spoof reports. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and renew your records you will not run into any future problems with the online service. However, failure to confirm your records may result in your account suspension.

You can confirm your account records by logging in to your internet banking account. Once you have confirmed your account records your internet banking service will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

To confirm your bank account records please click here.

Thank you for your time,
SunTrust Billing Department.

————————————————————————————————————————
© 2004 SunTrust Banks, Inc. All rights reserved. - Equal Housing Lender - Member FDIC

or

Subject: Verify your E-mail with Citibank

This email was sent by the Citibank server to verify your E-mail address. You must complete this process by clicking on the link below and entering in the small window your Citibank ATM/Debit Card number and PIN that you use on ATM.

This is done for your protection - because some of our members no longer have access to their email addresses and we must verify it.

To verify your E-mail address and access your bank account, click on the link below:

https://web.da-us.citibank.com/signin/citifi/scripts/
email_verify.jsp

———————————————————-

Thank you for using Citibank ^[28]

The link however goes to a non-secure site at http://www.securecitibank.us. Said domain was registered to a certain Wayne Stanford of 3057 sunrise cir, marina CA, 93933, United States, and not to CitiBank itself. ^[29] After the initial Citibank phishing attacks, another set of phishing emails were circulated on a different premise, to wit:

Recently there have been a large number of identity theft attempts targeting Citibank customers. In order to safeguard your account, we require that you update your Citibank ATM/Debit card PIN.

This update is requested of you as a precautionary measure against fraud. Please note that we have no particular indications that your details have been compromised in any way.

This process is mandatory, and if not completed within the nearest time your account may be subject to temporary suspension.

To securely update your Citibank ATM/Debit card PIN please go to:

https://www.citibank.com/signin/citifi/scripts/login2/update_pin.jsp

Please note that this update applies to your Citibank ATM/Debit card - which is linked directly to your checking account, not Citibank credit cards.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter and thank you for using Citibank!

Regards,

Riley Buckner
Head of Citi® Identity Theft Solutions

Copyright © 2004 Citicorp. All rights reserved.
Do not reply to this email as it is an unmonitored alias.

ozmpjdyvexo utcbt vuqr znrwvsowwvi

The link however ends up to a website in Asia. The genuine CitiBank page is forced to appear behind the scam’s pop-up web page. ^[30]

Prevention. Two of the basic clues in determining a phishing email are the email’s typographic errors and the sophistication of the email’s content and grammar. Misspellings and faulty grammar in the bogus email should bring alarm bells ringing in mind.

1. Use anti-virus software and a firewall, and keep them updated. Some emails may contain software or scripts that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge, by themselves or by unleashing viruses or spyware.
2. Be aware of corporate e-mails requesting or require personal financial information (credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers). Also be aware of e-mails coming from usual service providers requesting verification of certain account information (email addresses, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.) A sender may mimic an Internet service provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, or even a government agency. Phishers often convince e-mail recipients to respond when they hijack brand names of banks, credit card companies and e-retailers.
3. If you normally transact with the company requesting the information, and if the company’s office can be contacted by phone without incurring unwelcome charges, call to confirm. A potential fraudster would have difficulty taking over the company’s phone system to perpetuate his/her scheme.
4. Do not reply, either querying/confirming the sender’s need for the information or worse, sending the information requested through email. Legitimate companies do not ask for personal information via email. Further, e-mail is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. Updating information with the company’s website would be a better option, while updating information within company’s premises and authorized personnel would be the best.
5. Do not click on the e-mails link, even if you are curious where the link would lead you. Go directly to the company’s website by typing the website’s URL address in your browser’s address bar, if you need to.
6. Do not openany attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive. These files may contain viruses or spyware.
7. If you need to update your personal information in the company’s website, make sure that the site is secure by looking for signs in your browser that it is in fact secure; such as a “locked” yellow padlock at the lower right corner of your browser, or the “https://” in your browser’s address bar (the “s” appended to “http” to mean “secure”). Still, these indications are not foolproof, as fraudsters may be technologically sophisticated to develop or mimic secure sites.
8. If the personal information shared that is vulnerable to fraud is of financial nature, be aware of or check your credit card or account activity, and report anomalous transactions to the concerned company or service provider, if they occur. If your statement is late, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address, if not your account balances.

Distinctions with other frauds

1. Online Credit Card Fraud. Online Credit Card Fraud is more geared towards the use of credit cards over the Internet. It is a direct act to utilize another person’s credit card information to pursue transactions online; the information being acquired through insidious schemes (through keylogging spyware, phishing, etc.) or by cracking the credit card account itself. Fraudulent use of credit cards (accounts) is governed by the Access Device Regulation Act of 1998 (Republic Act 8484) in the Philippines. The deterrence of the practice, especially if electronically pursued, is supplemented by the e-Commerce Act of 2000 (Republic Act 8792) and covered by A.M. 01-7-01-SC (Rules on Electronic Evidence). On the other hand, phishing is only the preliminary means to pursue actual online credit card fraud. As a technical subterfuge scheme, it plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials directly, often using Trojan keylogger spyware. Phishing, however, may also be utilized to acquire information to allow identity thefts, a springboard to the commission of estafa, and other crimes. It may also be pursued to gain access to non-financial accounts (such as email accounts) to pursue other frauds. The scheme is not limited to aid the commission of violating the access device law.
2. Spyware utilizing spam. Both means of acquiring information uses e-mails extensively. The distinction exist in the kind of information being sought, the purpose for the information sought, and the method being pursued by the two schemes. Phishing is aimed primarily in acquiring specific personal information (similar to those in bio-data), while spyware, besides this specie of information, may even pursue the determination of a victim’s online behavior patterns, among others. Phishing is necessarily related to the commission of fraud. On the other hand, while spyware’s gathering of information does not discount the possibility of the commission of fraud, it may be merely an insidious means to acquire consumer information for product development or marketing. Phishing does not necessarily need a software to acquire its objective, but merely the possible gullibility of its victim. The victim’s intervention is always present for it to occur.. Spyware is software, and it is installed either by the gullibility of the victim, by indiscriminate clicking of “ok” buttons, by agreeing to the terms of a contract of adhesion by another software where the spyware is bundled, or even by scripts or viruses without the victim’s intervention. Phishing emails may provide links towards a fake website to gather the information sought or to install spyware. Spyware through spam emails provide links to install spyware. Finally, some spyware are installed to get the victim to part with his money for an antidote, while some phishing attacks are made to get the victim to part with his money, period.

Pharming

Pharming attacks are similar to phishing identity theft attacks, but don’t require a “lure,” such as a Web link that victims must click on to be taken to the attack Web site. ^[31] Pharming combines phishing with domain spoofing/domain hijacking The distinction lies with the exploitation of a vulnerability in the DNS server software by a hacker-phisher to acquire the domain name for a website and to redirect that website’s traffic to the fake site attributed in phishing. ^[32] Hence, pharming crimeware misdirects users to fraudulent sites or proxy servers, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning. This is possible when the original site was not Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) ^[33] protected, or when the user is ignoring warnings about invalid server certificates. ^[34] Rather than spamming a potential victim, pharmers “poisons” one’s local DNS server by redirecting the Web request somewhere else, i.e. to a website purporting to be the website one intended to access. When a cracker poisons a DNS server, he or she changes the specific record for a domain, sending one to a Web site very different from the one one intended to access—without your knowledge. Usually, the cracker does this by posing as an official who has the authority to change the destination of a domain name. DNS poisoning is also possible via software vulnerability, however. ^[35]

Prevalence. In 2004 a German teenager from from Helmstedt, Lower Saxony hijacked the eBay.de Domain Name. ^[36] In January 2005, the Domain Name for a large New York ISP, Panix, was hijacked, the ownership of which was attributed to a site in Australia. Requests to reach the panix.com server were redirected to the United Kingdom, and e-mail was redirected to Canada. Secure e-mail provider Hushmail experienced the attack on 24 April 2005 when the attacker rang up the domain registrar and gained enough information to redirect users to a defaced webpage. ^[37] On the other hand, e-mailed viruses that rewrite local host files on individual PCs, like the Banker Trojan, have been used to conduct smaller-scale pharming attacks. ^[38]

Prevention. Pharming could be combated if browsers would authenticate websites’ identities.

1. Server side. In order to remove pharming as a threat, servers would have to add another layer of authentication. To prove that the online merchants, banks, etc. are who they purport themselves to be, it might require them to obtain a certificate from a certificate authority, such as VeriSign.
2. Client side.
1. Response to certificates. When one visit the websites of the online merchant, banks, etc., a dialog box appears, prompting one whether the latter would want to trust the certificate. If the name on the certificate does not match the website one tries to access, something is amiss. One should leave the website, as the website being accessed is not the actual electronic merchant, bank, etc. being sought. If the certificate corresponds to the website, one needs to save the certificate so that the browser would determine if it has reached the right URL address on the next visit. ^[39]
2. Netcraft toolbar (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/). Another simple solution that works in some cases is a browser plug-in from Netcraft that displays information about the site being visited, such as its geographic location. ^[40]

Other Internet fraud

There are other Internet fraud existing, and which are usually virtual extensions of frauds that occur in the normal routine of commerce. The anonymity of a person over the Internet is a reason why con artists can pursue frauds with more ease. Other kinds would include frauds pertaining to Internet Auctions, Investment, and Merchandise Delivery, among others. Internet Auction Fraud may be prevented in the following manner: (1) Understand as much as possible about how the auction works, what your obligations are as a buyer, and what the seller’s obligations are before you bid. Understand that if a problem occurs with the auction transaction, it could be much more difficult if the seller is located outside the US because of the difference in laws. (2) Find out if shipping and delivery are included in the auction price or are additional costs so there are no unexpected costs. Find out what actions the web site/company takes if a problem occurs and consider insuring the transaction and shipment. (3) Learn as much as possible about the seller, especially if the only information you have is an e-mail address. If it is a business, check the Better Business Bureau where the seller/business is located. Examine the feedback on the seller. (4) Determine what method of payment the seller is asking from the buyer and where he/she is asking to send payment. Also ask the seller about when delivery can be expected and if there is a problem with the merchandise is it covered by a warranty or can you exchange it. (5) There should be no reason to give out your social security number or driver’s license number to the seller. Investment fraud may be limited through observation of due diligence similar to the prevention of credit card fraud, and inquiry about all the terms and conditions of the investment proposal, taking into mind that “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.’ On the matter of non-delivery of merchandise, to prevent so, (1) Observe due diligence similar to the prevention of credit card fraud; (2) Inquire about returns and warranties; and (3) Consider utilizing an escrow or alternate payment service. ^[41]

The creativity of a con artist is unlimited. Centuries old scams can be revived to assume modern forms, through adoption of modern contexts and means. Be aware. A healthy dose of cynicism once in a while may prove to be the major factor in keeping one’s pockets healthy, and one’s positive social perception intact.

Endnotes

1. Internet Fraud. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 25 October 2005. [back]
2. Ibid. [back]
3. Internet Fraud Preventive Measures. Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFFC). Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
4. Ibid. [back]
5. Advance fee fraud. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 30 November 2005. [back]
6. Spanish Prisoner. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 30 November 2005. [back]
7. Advance fee fraud. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ibid. [back]
8. Public Awareness Advisory Regarding “4-1-9” or “Advance Fee Fraud” Schemes. United States Secret Service: Advance Fee Fraud Advisory. Retrieved 30 November 2005. [back]
9. Advance Fee Fraud. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ibid. [back]
10. Ibid. [back]
11. Ibid. [back]
12. DFA warns OFWs on text scam in Canada. ABS-CBN Interactive. Retrieved 30 November 2005. [back]
13. Public Awareness Advisory Regarding “4-1-9” or “Advance Fee Fraud” Schemes. United States Secret Service. Ibid. [back]
14. Urban Legends Reference Pages: Crime (Nigerian Scam). Snopes.com. Retrieved 30 November 2005. [back]
15. Internet Fraud Preventive Measures. Ibid. [back]
16. Phishing. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 25 October 2005. [back]
17. Anti-Phishing Working Group. “What is Phishing and Pharming?” Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
18. E-mail Evils: Of Phishing, Spam and E-mail Scams. Microsoft Philippines – IT Professionals. Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
19. Federal Trade Commission, For the Consumer. FTC Consumer Alert. “How Not to Get Hooked by a ‘Phishing’ scam.” Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
20. Musgrove, Mike. ‘”Phishing’ Keeps Luring Victims,” 22 October 20005. Washington Post. Retrieved 23 October 2005. [back]
21. Musgrove, Mike. ‘”Phishing’ Keeps Luring Victims.” Ibid. [back]
22. Federal Trade Commission, Ibid. [back]
23. Phishing. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ibid. [back]
24. Musgrove, Mike. ‘”Phishing’ Keeps Luring Victims.” Ibid. [back]
25. Ibid. [back]
26. Phishing Activity Trends Report, September 2005. Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
27. Musgrove, Mike. ‘”Phishing’ Keeps Luring Victims.” Ibid. [back]
28. ESTec Security - Phishing Attacks. “Phishing Sample e-mail.” ESTec Systems Corporation. Retrieved 30 November 2005. [back]
29. Phishing Samples. Mortgage Investments.com. Retrieved 30 November 2005 [back]
30. Ibid. [back]
31. Roberts, Paul. “Pharming Attacks Target the Web.” 1 April 2005. PC World. [back]
32. Pharming. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 25 October 2005. [back]
33. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), its successor, are cryptographic protocols which provide secure communications on the Internet. Transport Layer Security – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 November 2005 [back]
34. Anti-Phishing Working Group. “What is Phishing and Pharming?” Ibid. [back]
35. Vamosi, Robert. “Alarm over pharming attacks: identity theft made even easier.” 18 February 2005. Cnet.com, Security Watch. Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
36. Fiutak, Martin. Teenager admits eBay domain hijack” 8 September 2004. C/net news.com. Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
37. Pharming. Wikidepia, the free encyclopedia. Ibid. [back]
38. Delio, Michelle. “Pharming Out-Scams Phishing.” 14 March 2005. Wired News. Retrieved 28 November 2005. [back]
39. Vamosi, Robert. “Alarm over pharming attacks: identity theft made even easier.” Ibid. [back]
40. Coursey, David. “First Was Phishing, Next Is Pharming” 2 February 2005. eWeek.com. Retrieved 28 November 2005 [back]
41. Internet Fraud Preventive Measures. Ibid. [back]

It has been some time since the bygone era of the typewriter. If one can still remember, the source of a typewritten document may be identified by fingerprint impressions on the paper to identify who handled the paper, by the distinct flaws of the typewriter’s typeface to identify the usual user of such specific typewriter, or both. These methods of identification were useful in identifying the principals in the commission of fraud, among other crimes. On the other hand, these methods can also be used in identifying the origins or authors of underground and prohibited self-published literature, whether under a repressive government regime or not. The forensic means, as said, can be used for both legitimate and illegitimate ends, but the consolation remains that the mechanical flaws in a certain typewriter were not made deliberately by the typewriter manufacturer to allow the identification of its owner-possessor-user.

Presently, with the proliferation of low-cost colored printers, and the declining cost of owning a colored laser printer, it is not uncommon that some counterfeiters try to forge legal tender through the use of colored printing technology, and to utter the printouts as money thereafter. Colored laser printers, combined with a reliable scanner, can also replicate other legal or commercial documents, and thus allow the forger to pass the printouts as the genuine documents. Researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America, for one, have developed a technique to trace a document, i.e. by analyzing a document to identify characteristics that are unique for each printer, and by designing printers to purposely embed individualized characteristics in documents. They detect, through software, slight variations in printed characters, which they call “intrinsic signatures,” revealing subtle differences from one printer model to another. ^[1]

Printer codes

Another manner of detecting which printer a printout originated was reported on 26 October 2004, in the magazine PC World with an article therein entitled “Dutch track counterfeits via printer serial numbers.” The article pointed out that every printout contains a hidden code, which in turn contains information about the computer printer that it was printed on. Even if modern printers are of different brands, their print engines are made by only a few companies, such as Toshiba, Canon and Ricoh; and that it is the engine that has its own identity that can be traced ^[2] Most consumers are unaware of this feature until recently, but most government agencies are aware of this for some time. Seth Schoen, a technologist who led the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) research, said he had seen the coding on documents produced by printers that were at least a decade old. ^[3]

The built-in security is composed of dots. “The dots are yellow, less than one millimeter in diameter, and are typically repeated over each page of a document. In order to see the pattern, one needs a blue light, a magnifying glass, or a microscope,” ^[4] Schoen revealed. The pattern indicates a unique number that is printed on every color page. The number determines to what country a specific printer has been delivered, and to what dealer. The dealer then can lead investigators to the local computer store where the printer was sold. ^[5] The EFF has cracked the codes of a particular line of Xerox printers but has observed similar marking in Hewlett Packard (HP) printers, among others. EFF looked at printer output under a blue light, and found yellow dot markings in Brother HL-4200CN printer; Canon CLC 1000, CLC 2400, CLC 4000, Color imageRUNNER C3100CN, Color imageRUNNER C3200, and Color imageRUNNER C3220 printers; Dell 3000cn, 3100cn, and 5100cn printers; Epson AcuLaser C900, C1100, C1500, and C1900 printers; HP Color Laserjet 1500l, 2500, 2500n, 2550l, 2550n, 2600n, 2680, 2840, 3500, 3500n, 3600dn, 3700, 3700dn, 3700n, 4600, 4600dn, 4600hdn, 4600n, 4650, 4650dn, 4650dtn, 5100cn, 5500, 5500atn, 5500dn, 5500hdn, 5550, 5550dtn, 9500 printers; Konica/Minolta Bizhub C350, CF1501, Colorforce 8050, Desklaser 2200, DialtaColor CF 2001, Ikon CPP500E, Magicolor 2210, Magicolor 2300 DL, Magicolor 2430 DL, Magicolor 3300, Magicolor 7300 printers; Kyocera FS-C5016N printer; Lanier LD238C, and LP125cx/LP126cn printers; Lexmark C510, C720, and C912 printers; Ricoh Aficio CL 3000, Aficio CL 6010, Aficio CL 7000, and AP 206 printers; Savin C3210 and CLP35 printers; Tektronix eStudio 3511 printer; Xerox DocuColor 12, DocuColor 40, DocuColor 2045, DocuColor 6060, WorkCentre M24. WorkCenter Pro 40, and WorkCenter Pro C2636 printers. On the other hand, the press report that Epson AcuLaser C1100 printer and all models of Xerox WorkCentre Pro print tracking codes. Lastly, the manufacturer admitted that the following printers print tracking codes: Tektronix eStudio 210c, eStudio 310c, eStudio 311c, eStudio 211c, eStudio 2100c, eStudio 3100c, FC15i, FC15, FC22i, FC22, FC25Pi, FC25P, FC70, printers; and Xerox DocuColor 2000, and DocuColor 6060 printers. ^[6]

The United States Secret Service acknowledged that the markings exist but played down its use for invading privacy. Agency spokesman Eric Zahren announced that the markings merely serve as “a countermeasure to prevent illegal activity specific to counterfeiting,” and ” to protect our currency and to protect people’s hard-earned money.” ^[7] On the other hand, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien noted that “Underground democracy movements that produce political or religious pamphlets and flyers, like the Russian samizdat of the 1980s, will always need the anonymity of simple paper documents, but this technology makes it easier for governments to find dissenters, Even worse, it shows how the government and private industry make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by compromising everyday equipment like printers.” ^[8]

Right of privacy

Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to stop information about themselves from becoming known to people other than those they choose to give the information to. The right against unsanctioned intrusion of privacy by the government, corporations or individuals is part of many countries’ laws, and in some cases, constitutions (such as France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen). ^[9] Further, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in article 12, states that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”

In the Philippines, on the other hand, in the landmark case of Morfe v. Mutuc [130 Phil. 415 (1968), 22 SCRA 424], the Philippine Supreme Court, speaking through then Mr. Justice Fernando, stated that

“The right to privacy is constitutionally protected. The right to privacy as such is accorded recognition independently of its identification with liberty; in itself, it is fully deserving of constitutional protection. The language of Prof. Emerson is particularly apt: ‘The concept of limited government has always included the idea that governmental powers stop short of certain intrusions into the personal life of the citizen. This is indeed one of the basic distinctions between absolute and limited government. Ultimate and pervasive control of the individual, in all aspects of his life, is the hallmark of the absolute state. In contrast, a system of limited government safeguards a private sector, which belongs to the individual, firmly distinguishing it from the public sector, which the state can control. Protection of this private sector —protection, in other words, of the dignity and integrity of the individual —has become increasingly important as modern society has developed. All the forces of technological age —industrialization, urbanization, and organization —operate to narrow the area of privacy and facilitate intrusion into it. In modern terms, the capacity to maintain and support this enclave of private life marks the difference between a democratic and a totalitarian society.’” ^[10]

Consumer concerns

Identification of the printer origin of a colored printout ultimate points to the identification of the owner of the printer. The means to identify a felon through certain encrypted codes in a printed output may be said to be legitimate, but the same means may serve as a prior restraint against any other person from airing criticisms or other utterances against entities that may have the propensity to resort to extra-legal remedies to suppress such expression. Truly, although it may be clear that the means was in furtherance of an important government interest in the United States – and parallel to the government interest of other countries relating to counterfeit notes, i.e. including the Philippines – and that said interest is primarily unrelated to the suppression of freedom of expression, there may be controversy whether the incidental restriction on the freedom of expression is no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest. It may be contended that the government interest, sought to be promoted, can be achieved by means other than the suppression of freedom of expression. ^[11] By the way things are, one should be printing his legitimate criticisms against known political personalities in some other printer that does not print the encrypted yellow dots.

On the other hand, leaving consumers in the dark as to marks that identify device purchasers is an insidious means to achieve a certain purpose without regard to its pregnant potential for abuse. Its continued practice, further, is contradictory to the current trend where sellers provide privacy terms in their products, to make the consumer aware of the pertinent personal information the latter is willing to divulge. Such insidious practice divests an ordinary person from consciously assuming risks – such as those made with the use of computers and mobile phones – and from limiting liabilities for ambiguous acts – such as currency printouts for a school report.

Lastly, the words of EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien ring true when he said that “it shows that the government and private industry make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by compromising everyday equipment like printers. The logical next question is: what other deals have been or are being made to ensure that our technology rats on us?” ^[12] Just imagine the possibility and effects of encrypted marks on digital photography and videography, if government would pursue such measure for a supposedly legitimate government interest.

Conclusion

The Consumer Act of the Philippines, promulgated on 13 April 1992, does not contain consumer protection as to privacy issues, although the powers of the National Consumer Affairs Commission include that which recommends new policies and legislation or amendments to existing ones, ^[13] i.e. pertaining to consumer protection. The Philippines has not pursued a path somehow oriented towards the protection of privacy and transborder flows of personal data – such as those embodied in the guidelines promulgated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), circa 1980 – or a path parallel to the initiatives of the United States, ironically as to this article, through its Federal Trade Commission and Department of Commerce, as to fair information practices. The Philippine government should now be addressing, as it should have had before, advanced consumer issues besides those directly related to usual items in store shelves. It cannot actively indulge itself in techno-rhetoric while being complacently backward in its policies as to matters of technology.

Endnotes

1. De Vries, Wilbert. “Dutch track counterfeits via printer serial numbers” WebWereld Netherlands. 26 October 2004, PC World HTML Developer’s Guide Dutch track counterfeits via printer serial numbers PC World, © 2005 IDG Communications. Retrieved 20 October 2005. [back]
2. Ibid. [back]
3. Musgrove, Mike. “Sleuths Crack Tracking Code Discovered in Color Printers,” 19 October 2005. Washington Post Company. Retrieved 21 October 2005. [back]
4. Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You: Tiny Dots Show Where and When You Made Your Print 17 October 2005, EFF Breaking News: Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 21 October 2005. [back]
5. De Vries, Wilbert. “Dutch track counterfeits via printer serial numbers”. Ibid. [back]
6. List of Printers Which Do or Don’t Print Tracking Dots. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 21 October 2005. [back]
7. Musgrove, Mike. “Sleuths Crack Tracking Code Discovered in Color Printers,” Ibid. [back]
8. Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You. Ibid. [back]
9. Privacy. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 25 October 2005. [back]
10. See also Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) as to U.S. Supreme Court declaration regarding the right to privacy. [back]
11. See Social Weather Station vs. Comelec. GR 147571, 5 May 2001, citing U.S. vs. O’Brien, 391 US 365, as to the O’Brien test. [back]
12. Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You. Ibid. [back]
13. Article 153 (b), Republic Act 7394, The Consumer Act of the Philippines [back]

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

A peer-to-peer (P2P) computer network is a network that mostly uses direct connections between peer nodes (clients). Such peer nodes simultaneously function as both clients and servers to other nodes on the network. Any node, thus, is able to initiate or complete any supported transaction with any other node. Peer nodes may vary in local configuration, storage quantity, processing speed, and network bandwidth. File sharing networks such as FastTrack, FreeNet, GNUtella, and OpenNap are examples of such. ^[1]

P2P networks have become a popular medium through which users share huge amounts of data. The bandwidth of all clients or nodes can be used fully and that the available download bandwidth may increase due to the increase in the number of nodes. Such networks also distribute the cost of sharing data among peers (clients) in the network, by aggregating the resources of a large number of independent nodes in P2P systems, allowing applications to scale without the need of powerful and expensive servers, and thus reducing the cost of sharing data unlike if servers would be utilized.

Simply said, users of P2P networks need not be aware of matters involving server administration, but would merely install P2P software in their regular computer, for them to acquire and share various media stored in their shared folder. P2P users are further allowed to download component parts of a file they are interested in from various users of a P2P network, instead of relying on a single source or website for the whole file. Anyone who has used the first version of Napster and the now popular Kazaa would have an idea of how P2P networks work.

It was in 1984 that the phrase “peer to peer” was used, with the development of the “Advanced Peer to Peer Networking” architecture at IBM. This referred to earlier research- and business-oriented peer-to-peer systems, which predated popular internet-based file-sharing networks. The first generation of Internet P2P networks had a centralized file list, which the courts of the United States deemed to be infringement of copyright. This generation includes the first version of Napster. ^[2] After media companies prevailed over Napster, a new generation of P2P networks emerged. They had decentralized file lists, and had improvements like distributed hash tables (DHT) and other optimizations for decentralized search. This generation includes GNUtella and FastTrack (specifically Kazaa). As anonymous P2P networks allow for distribution of material with little or no accountability for it, such demand for such networks increased especially after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) clamped down on individual P2P users in 2003. Such generation of anonymous networks includes Freenet, I2P, and GNUnet. ^[3]

Underutilized and imperfect tool

Although regarded generally as file sharing networks, most of the commonly shared files are either copyright-protected materials, such as mp3 music files and DivX ^[4] movie files, or adult-oriented media. The use of P2P networks, therefore, is rendered limited by such content; unlike non-P2P tools, such as email, which has cut across gossip, protected content, and forwarded feel-good messages towards legitimate and useful communication purposes. The trend does not appear to go to the other direction with regard to P2P systems as content demand remains towards the illegal and titillating than on the legitimate and “boring.” This trend may not be overturned in the immediate future until there is serious initiative towards the legitimate use of P2P networks, such as for academic or research purposes, or even for business purposes such as hiring. Such turnabout is not farfetched, as the Internet itself has been transformed from academic and scientific to proprietary over the years.

Considering that increased legitimate use of P2P systems may be possible, certain challenges must be overcome before the potential of such systems may be realized. For one, the scale of the network and the autonomy of nodes make it difficult to identify and distribute the resources that are available. As the system is dynamic, with nodes constantly joining and leaving, resources and resource demands are constantly changing, making it difficult to determine which resources are indeed available. Further, some peers may be malicious and, thus, peers may receive inauthentic information or may be victims of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. ^[5] Due to the anonymity of users in certain networks or due to the ease of changing profiles, it would be difficult to pinpoint and report malicious users at a given time. ^[6]

Moderating the P2P threat

Due to the prevailing content provided by nodes in P2P networks, such networks pose grave threats to established media companies. Thus, these P2P networks have been targeted by industry trade organizations, where the latter spend large amounts of money attempting to lobby lawmakers for legal restrictions. Industry organizations have not been successful in its advocacy to subvert the operations of P2P networks, but have been relatively successful in protecting its intellectual property rights before Unted States courts, as may be seen in the Napster case (infringement) and recently involving Kazaa (as to infringing users’ identities).

Due to the networks’ parallel functionality as to other methods of file transfer, such networks may also collectively turn into an alternative forum to malefactors, such as terrorists, or may become a medium for the dissemination of their propaganda. Further, the networks are increasingly becoming alternatives to websites containing child pornography, which are currently being effectively clamped down.

Current file-sharing legislation

The following bills are, as of this writing, pending in the United States Congress: (1) Protecting Children from Peer-to-Peer Pornography Act of 2003 [HR 2885], which seeks to prohibit the distribution of peer -to-peer file trading software in interstate commerce; (2) the Government Network Security Act of 2003 [HR3159], which seeks to require Federal agencies to develop and implement plans to protect the security and privacy of government computer systems from the risks posed by peer-to-peer file sharing; and (3) Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004 [HR4077].

Similar legislation are also pending with the Philippine Congress, although focusing more the general issues, such as Internet piracy and child pornography, through all Internet protocols and not necessarily through peer-to-peer networks only. Among these are: (1) An act amending certain provisions of Republic Act No. 8293, entitled “An act prescribing the intellectual property code and establishing the intellectual property office, providing for its powers and functions and for other purposes,” [HB00322] which seeks to amend the Intellectual Property Code through the integration of comprehensive, efficient and adequate strategies designed to respond to Internet piracy, among others; and (2) An act seeking to improve child protection against abuse, exploitation and discrimination, amending for the purpose Republic Act No. 7610, as amended by Republic Act No. 7658, otherwise known as the “Special Protection and Discrimination Act”, appropriating funds therefor and for other purposes, [HB01961] which seeks to impose penalty for child pornography through the internet and mandates the creation of a central data bank to monitor abuses made by foreigners against children and prevent their reentry, among others.

Conclusion

Peer-to-peer systems are tools that may serve legitimate purposes, although they are currently being used more extensively for less than legal ends. Subverting said networks, in general, would negate technological advances as to avenues for Internet-aided communication, especially as to distributed file sharing. Shutting down said networks would only highlight the fact that there is a shortage of ingenious solutions to prevent transmission of prohibited media by infringers and perverts. The solution being proposed, i.e. closing the venue of possible malefactors, is clearly and arbitrarily desperate. For one, sharing case digests over Kazaa is an interesting thought.

Endnotes

1. Other examples are those of Applejuice (which includes Applejuice Client), BitTorrent (which includes ABC, Azureus, BitAnarch, BitComet, BitSpirit, BitTornado, BitTorrent, BitTorrent++, BitTorrent.Net, G3 Torrent, mlMac, MLDonkey, QTorrent, SimpleBT, Shareaza, TomatoTorrent, and TorrentStorm), CAKE (which includes BirthdayCAKE), Direct Connect (which includes BCDC++, CZDC++, DC++, NeoModus Direct Connect, and JavaDC), eDonkey (which includes aMule, eMule, LMule, MindGem, MLDonkey, mlMac, Shareaza, and xMule), ed2k or eDonkey 2000 (which includes eDonkey, and eMule), FastTrack (which includes giFT, Grokster, iMesh, Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, K++, Diet Kaza, CleanKazaa, Mammoth, MLDonkey, mlMac, and Poisoned), Freenet (which includes Entropy, Freenet, and Frost), Gnutella (which includes Acquisitionx, BearShare, Gnucleus, Grokster, gtk-gnutella, Limewire, MLDonkey, mlMac, Morpheus, Phex, Poisoned, Swapper, Shareaza, and XoloX), Gnutella2 (which includes Adagio, Gnucleus, MLDonkey, mlMac, Morpheus, and Shareaza), Joltid PeerEnabler (which includes Altnet, Bullguard, Joltid, Kazaa, and Kazaa Lite), Kademlia (which includes eMule, MindGem, MLDonkey, and VarVar), Manolito/MP2P (which includes Blubster, Piolet, and RockItNet), Napster (which includes Napigator, OpenNap, and WinMX), WPNP (which includes WinMX), among other networks (including Akamai, Alpine, Ares Galaxy, Audiogalaxy network, Carracho, Chord, The Circle, Coral, Dexter, Diet-Agents, EarthStation 5, Evernet, FileTopia, GNUnet, Grapevine, Groove, Hotwire, iFolder, konspire2b, MUTE, and OpenFT). See Peer-to-peer. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer [back]
2. For a digest of A &M Records Inc. vs. Napster, see Volume 1, Issue 2, page 15 of the Philippine Quarterly IT Law Journal. [back]
3. Peer-to-peer. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, supra. [back]
4. DivX® is the brand name of the world’s most popular video compression technology. At its core, DivX is a codec (short for compression/decompression) - a piece of software that compresses video from virtually any source down to a size that is transportable over the Internet without reducing the original video’s visual quality. What is DivX? DivXNetworks, Inc. http://www.divx.com/divx/whatisdivx.php [back]
5. A “denial-of-service” attack is characterized by an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service. Examples include (1) attempts to “flood” a network, thereby preventing legitimate network traffic, (2) attempts to disrupt connections between two machines, thereby preventing access to a service, (3) attempts to prevent a particular individual from accessing a service, and (4) attempts to disrupt service to a specific system or person. CERT/CC Denial of Service. CERT Coordination Center, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/denial_of_service.html [back]
6. Peer-to-Peer Research at Stanford. Mayank Bawa, Brian F. Cooper, Arturo Crespo, Neil Daswani, Prasanna Ganesan, Hector Garcia-Molina, Sepandar Kamvar, Sergio Marti, Mario Schlosser, Qi Sun, Patrick Vinograd, Beverly Yang of the Computer Science Department, Stanford University. http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/showDoc.Fulltext?lang=en&doc=2003-38&format=pdf&compression= [back]

I. Pornography vis-à-vis Obscenity

A. Pornography

Pornography is the depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement. ^[1] It is “the sexually explicit depiction of persons, in words or images, created with the primary, proximate aim, and reasonable hope, of eliciting significant sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials.” ^[2] In legal parlance, pornography “refers to any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent shows, information technology, or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual purposes.” ^[3] The 1986 Attorney General Commission on Pornography of the United States defined it as material that “is predominantly sexually explicit and intended primarily for the purpose of sexual arousal.” ^[4]

Soft-core pornography features naked or scantily clothed persons, focusing mainly on their breasts and genitalia but shows no sexual intercourse. Hard-core pornography includes various forms of sexual penetration, forced and unforced, between two or more people. Olson, Jeff. ^[5] Hard core pornography is said to be “sexually explicit in the extreme, and devoid of any other apparent content or purpose.” ^[6]

B. Obscenity

Obscenity, on the other hand, is “such indecency as is calculated to promote the violation of the law and the general corruption of morals.” ^[7] The current legal definition of obscenity is found in the 1973 US Supreme Court case of Miller v. California, ^[8] cited in the Philippine Supreme Court case of Pita vs. Court of Appeals. ^[9] According to the Miller case, material is obscene if all three of the following conditions are met:

1. The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interests.
2. The work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state (or federal) law, and
3. The work taken as a whole, lacks serious, artistic, political or scientific value ^[10] .

The US Supreme Court ruled in the Miller case, which was adopted by the Philippine Supreme Court in the Pita case, that a legal definition of obscenity must meet the three-part test. It must be determined, “(1) whether the predominant theme or purpose of the material, when viewed as a whole and not part by part, and when considered in relation to the intended and probable recipients, is an appeal to the prurient interest of the average person of the community as a whole, or the prurient interest of members of a deviant sexual group, as the case may be”; (2) whether the given material “depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct – e.g. ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated; masturbation; excretory functions; or lewd exhibition of the genitals – measured against contemporary community standards; i.e whether it so exceeds the generally accepted limits of candor as to be clearly offensive”; and (3) “whether the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” ^[11] If it appeals, thus, to the prurient interest, is patently offensive, and lacks serious value (artistically, etc.) then the material is considered obscene and is illegal.

II. Pornography vis-à-vis Prostitution; History of Pornography

Prostitution – that is, “the practice of engaging in sexual activity, usually with individuals other than a spouse or friend, in exchange for immediate payment in money or other valuables” ^[12] , or in legal parlance, “any act, transaction, scheme or design involving the use of a person by another, for sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct in exchange for money, profit or any other consideration” ^[13] – has existed since time immemorial. Prostitution and pornography are intertwined inasmuch as pornography originally signified any artwork or literature depicting the life of prostitutes. Today, pornography includes erotic and sexually explicit imagery of ordinary persons, who may even be unaware that they are presented to the public in such a manner. Pornography has grown increasingly as a necessary offshoot of prostitution, in light of the increasing supply of cheap image capturing devices.

Pornography has existed for centuries, although imagery and literature of such nature were not seen to be worthy of preservation or transmission. Rare images surviving to the present are hand-drawn graphics originating from India and Japan. ^[14] Some literature which survived – although such are being argued to be artistic and not pornographic, depending on the community standard being applied – includes the Indian “Kama-Sutra” and the Greek treatise “The Art of Love” by Ovid, among others. With the advent of printing in 1452, pornography, existing in the fringes of legitimate publishing, proliferated to entertain as well as to arouse. The development of photography in 1827, through the individual efforts of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, ^[15] and the development of moving pictures in 1867, through the individual efforts of William Lincoln, Louis Lumière, and the Edison Brothers, ^[16] although not intended, contributed to the proliferation of pornography, as did the Internet, which grew out of the U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) established in 1969.

III. Technology aiding the storage and transmission of pornography

Pornography exists in different media. Explicit images and image sequence may be stored in tangible and electronic forms.

A. Traditional media

Pornography in tangible or traditional media may be subcategorized as those printed in paper or other surface materials, and those captured in film. Those printed in paper includes photographs – either studio processed or polaroids ^[17] – besides usual pornographic publications. Those stored in film includes those stored in television and theatrical/cinema-grade films, such as the Super 16 (16mm) and the 35mm, respectively; film positives or slides; outmoded media such as Super 8 (8mm), ^[18] Betamax, ^[19] VHS, ^[20] and Compact VHS, ^[21] among others. Storage in these media, i.e. printed or in film, may be bulky, and the cost of production and distribution is average to high. The potency of distribution is also limited.

B. Modern Media

Pornography in electronic or modern media, on the other hand, may be subcategorized – although said media are identically binary ^[22] – according (1) to the class of storage device used, (2) to the class of consumer electronics used, or (3) to the multimedia format used.

1. Storage devices used ^[23]

Electronic documents, especially multimedia files, may be stored in disk storage, ^[24] magnetic bubble memory, ^[25] and flash memory ^[26] /memory card ^[27] or the solid-state semiconductor memory type. Disk storage may be classified further as optical disc ^[28] – which comes in various formats: CD-ROM, (through CD-R and CD-RW media, i.e. writeable and rewriteable, respectively), ^[29] DVD (through DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM media), ^[30] Blu-ray, ^[31] and Minidisc ^[32] – magnetic (or hard discs), ^[33] removable magnetic such as floppy ^[34] and zip discs, ^[35] and holographic. ^[36] Flash memory or memory cards are available through different manufacturers as CompactFlash I and II, ^[37] SONY Memory stick (Standard/Duo/Pro/MagicGate versions), ^[38] Secure Digital, ^[39] MMC, ^[40] SmartMedia, ^[41] xD, ^[42] or USB Keydrive ^[43] a.k.a. Thumb drive. Most multimedia files are stored in hard discs, optical discs, removable magnetic discs, and flash memory or memory cards. Physical distribution and transport of digital multimedia files are usually made using optical discs and flash memory or memory cards.

2. Consumer devices used

Storage of multimedia files is not isolated to computers, where data storage devices are widely used, whether desktop or portable (laptop or palmtop ^[44] ). Multimedia files are also presently stored in Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) ^[45] -enabled mobile telephones, ^[46] digital audio players ^[47] (DAP, sometimes also recorder), digital cameras and camcorders, digital recorders, ^[48] among other digital devices available in the market. Transmission of such multimedia files is a function no longer in the exclusive realm of computers. The ways to transfer multimedia files increase exponentially as new classes of digital devices are introduced in the market.

3. Non-physical transfer methods used

Multimedia files may be transferred from one computer to another, directly, through cables, radio, infrared, and other analogous means. Such files may be transferred through intermediary storage devices, such as optical discs, memory cards, and removable magnetic discs.

a. Electronic

Multimedia files may be transferred electronically through wires and cables. Earlier methods of connecting computers include parallel-to-parallel port cabling (for one-to-one connection) and Bayonet Neill-Concelman (BNC) ^[49] cabling (for Local Area Network [LAN]) ^[50] which are now passé, due to availability of cheaper computers and computer network peripherals such as hubs ^[51] and routers. ^[52] Current connections between computers are normally done through USB-to-USB ^[53] port link, and LAN connections using RJ45 (Registered Jack 45) jacks and cables. One LAN can be connected to other LANs, or one remote computer can be connected to one LAN, or one remote computer can be connected to another remote computer, over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. ^[54] Multimedia files are transferred in an Intranet ^[55] through the use of shared folders in individual computers or allocated user folders in the file server. Similar files have been transferred from one remote computer to another, prior to and simultaneous to the widespread use of the Internet, through Bulletin Board Service (BBS). ^[56]

When a computer, or the LAN, is connected to the Internet, various methods may be utilized to transfer and retrieved multimedia files on the Internet or another peer’s computer. Different protocols may be used, such as HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) ^[57] where the World Wide Web ^[58] is seen; Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) ^[59] or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), ^[60] and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) ^[61] where email is received and sent, and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) ^[62] where large files may be sent to an online repository or an allocated user folder in a destination server, Discussion boards or Usenet, ^[63] among others. Multimedia files may be transferred from one computer user to another through Internet Relay Chat (IRC), ^[64] or through Instant Messaging. ^[65] Said files may be transferred by simultaneously connected computer users using peer-to-peer ^[66] software, such as Kazaa, eDonkey, GNUtella, and the like.

b. Radio waves

Wireless LAN (WLAN) uses radio waves as its carrier, although the network backbone remains to be supported by wires and cables. Apple Macintosh computers use the pioneering WLAN product called AirPort. ^[67] Apple and most Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) device manufacturers follow IEEE 802.11 ^[68] WLAN standard, while a few follow the HomeRF ^[69] standard (2 Mbit/s, intended for home use). “Wired” LAN is preferred with desktop computers, while WLAN/Wi-Fi is preferred with mobile computers whether laptop or personal digital assistant (PDA). WLAN is more vulnerable to security breaches because it enables any person with a wireless-enabled computer or PDA to connect to the network, else the Internet, when in proximity of an access point called a hotspot, if not properly configured.

On the other hand, Bluetooth ^[70] provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, laptops, personal computers, printers and digital cameras via a secure, low-cost, globally available short range radio frequency, as long as they are within 10 metres or 32 feet of each other. ^[71] Bluetooth may be considered as wireless USB, contradistinguished with Wi-Fi, which may be considered as wireless Ethernet. ^[72] Bluetooth does not use any telecommunication network resources when files are transferred from one computer or any other device to a mobile phone, or vice versa, or from one mobile phone to another. Only when the mobile phone user/subscriber utilizes the phone company’s MMS service does he use telecommunication network resources for the transfer of the multimedia material to another mobile phone subscriber.

c. Infrared Radiation (IR) data transmission ^[73]

The use of infrared for data transfer was common between portable computers (laptops) and mobile phones, among others, prior to the popularity and affordability of Bluetooth and subsequent to the use of serial connections between the two (2) devices. Normally, the portable computer recognizes the mobile phone device as another computer connected to it. Integrity of connection, however, was a drawback to this kind of technology.

4. File formats used

Multimedia files come in different file formats, and may be subcategorized as pictures, video, and audio. Pictures are usually in JPEG, ^[74] GIF, ^[75] and BMP ^[76] formats, but may also be in PNG ^[77] and any other format. Videos are usually in AVI, ^[78] MPEG, ^[79] WMV, ^[80] and RM ^[81] formats. On the other hand, audio or sound clips are usually in MP3, ^[82] WAV, ^[83] WMA, ^[84] and RA ^[85] formats.

IV. Digital Pornography

A. Pornography in the Internet

The Internet has been called the network of networks. Over 9,400,000 host computers are linked worldwide of which 60% are estimated to be in the United States. It is further estimated that over 40 million people access the Internet around the world and that figure grew to 200 million in 1999. All Internet users have the ability to communicate with one another through various forums such as email, news groups, and information posted on the World Wide Web. Once material has been placed on the Internet, it is available to all other Internet users worldwide and cannot be prevented from entering any community ^[86] .

1. Cyberporn / Non-Streaming Internet Pornography

With sex being indulged in more freely these days, it is not surprising that pornography, in a similar trend, becomes highly available in various media, especially Internet-connected personal computers. This trend is imminent inasmuch as the Internet has become a vast myriad of interconnected channels that provides man with a gateway to the world. In a relatively short time, the Internet’s impact and influence on people’s daily lives is immeasurable. There are elements or enclaves within it that have grown to become sources of consternation within the society. Among them is the pervasive availability of pornography or more commonly known Cyberporn. Cyberporn has been the most controversial topic arising from the use of the Internet in recent years and for years to come. ^[87]

Cyberporn includes hardcore pictures and movies made available online. Sexually explicit images can be found on web pages (World Wide Web [WWW]) and in news groups (Usenet), and are far too easy for anyone of any age to view. Even live sex acts can be viewed by virtually anyone through the Internet, through web-cameras on online chat (Internet Relay Chat [IRC]). Explicit contents may also be transmitted through online messengers – such as Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and ICQ, among others – or through peer-to-peer (P2P) programs – such as Kazaa, among others. What was only available to a small number of people willing to drive to the bad side of town can now be viewed at any time in the privacy of one’s home. ^[88]

In a case conducted by Carnegie Mellon, entitled Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway,88 the researchers therein pulled together elaborate computer records of online activity, and found out that “during their 18- month study, Carnegie Mellon researchers found 917,410 sexually explicit pictures, descriptions, stories, and clips. On the Usenet newsgroups where these digitized images are stored, they found that 83.5% of the pictures were pornographic.” ^[89] They found individual consumers in at least 2000 cities, in all 50 states, and in 40 countries around the world; and found out that 98.9% of the consumers of porn are men, although women do participate in “chat” rooms and other bulletin boards. ^[90]

a. Through Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)

Nearly three fourths (71%) of the sexually explicit images surveyed originate from adult BBS attempting to lure customers to additional collections of cyberporn. There they can charge monthly fees and take credit card numbers for individual images. The five largest adult BBS systems have annual revenues in excess of $1 million. ^[91]

b. Through World Wide Web (WWW)

Cyberporn is largely available through the World Wide Web (WWW) pages. These range from pictures, short animated movies, short and full actual movies, to sound files and stories. Most premium adult WWW sites require proof of age and payment by credit card to access their materials. ^[92] Marketing webmasters for premium adult websites, however, provide samplings of adult materials in unsecured webpages – i.e. without age verification through credit card check – in their individual Thumbnail Gallery Posts (TGPs).

c. Through Usenet

There are more than 14,000 Usenet discussion groups all around the world but only around 200 groups are sex related, and some of these relate to serious and legitimate discussions, such as about homosexuality or sexual abuse. Still, sexually explicit forums are the most popular areas on computer online services. At one university, 13 of the 40 most frequently visited news groups had names like alt.sex.stories, rec.arts.erotica, and alt.sex.bondage. ^[93]

d. Through Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

The Internet, through Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and online messaging, makes it possible to discuss sex, see live sex acts, and arrange sexual activities from computer screens. Users therein may exchange messages and files in small groups or in private channels Like the Usenet discussion groups a small fraction of the IRC channels are dedicated to sex.

e. Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

This method of file sharing allows every individual running a peer-to-peer client or program to acquire sought multimedia files simultaneously and in fragments from different users, and share his own media without having the technical knowledge that would have been required in the older client-server model. Although copyrighted and adult materials are not allowed to be transmitted in peer-to-peer networks, according to the End-User License Agreements that comes with the software used as peer-to-peer clients, most users do not abide by the stipulation that prohibit such transmission.

2. Cybersex / Streaming Internet Pornography

Cyber sex, in its shortest and most explicit definition is, a combination of communication and masturbation. It is a selfish gratification of one’s sexual desires while sharing one’s most intimate thoughts and fantasies with someone else. It is nearly identical to phone sex, the only difference being the method of communication. As computer networks become ever more sophisticated and voice chat more common, even this distinction fades. The newest problem comes in the form of video conferencing, which adds visual images making the activity even more addictive ^[94] .

Cyber sexual activity takes many forms. One might download explicit pictures, or explicit stories. One might partake in the exchange of racy, sexually suggestive e-mails. One might view sexually arousing videos which open up and play on one’s computer screen, which may be either pre-recorded or live. Webcams, cameras interfaced with a computer so that one might broadcasts live streaming images of oneself, are increasingly common in the use of cybersexual activity. Chat rooms, whether general or private, are as popular as ever and might often lead to masturbation, cybersex, phone sex, or actual meetings in the flesh ^[95] .

Indeed, cybersex is a phenomenon that is neither receding nor going away by any stretch of the imagination. Cybersex is a growing phenomenon, with an all too rich and vibrant future.

B. Pornography in Optical Devices / VCD-DVD

The popularity and the adaptation of compact discs (CD-ROM) and digital versatile discs (DVD), as media for films and data storage, marked the demise of tape videos – such as those stored in Betamax and VHS – as media suitable for such content. The marked decrease in the price of CDs and DVDs allow the proliferation of contraband films, whether pirated Hollywood and Filipino movies or sexually-explicit X-rated movies whether foreign or Filipino. With pornography in VCDs fetching a price of mere twenty (PhP 20) pesos to fifty (PhP 50) pesos, it is not uncommon that porn purchasers would gravitate towards genre fixation or towards pursuing novel themes, some actively pursuing extreme perversions while others passively pursuing voyeurism or psuedo-voyeurism, a genre that would include the various sex scandal videos peddled nowadays.

C. Pornography in Mobile Phones / MMS Clips

As mobile phones are slowly being transformed into converged communication devices with capabilities similar to computers, contents normally prevalent in the Internet and in personal computers shift venue to mobile phones. The ease of converting ordinary pictures and movies in their original formats as MMS content likewise aid to the immediate shift of computer content to mobile phones. Further, the capability of mobile phones to access the Internet directly allows download of Internet content into the phone itself. Other services such as messaging and chatting, which may altogether swerve towards adult context, or if not towards solicitation, as practiced in the Internet can find a sizeable niche in the mobile phone market.

The problem does not stop with the conversion of Internet/computer content into MMS content but aggravates with instances of production of new content, using the built-in camera of more advanced mobile phones. It is thus easier to capture a sexual pose or act, with or without the subject(s)’ consent, by a click of a button. The mobile phone may also be used to capture images of prank sensual images known as upskirting and/or downblousing of anonymous persons in public places. Inasmuch as mobile phones are considered as indispensable accessory to most users, such phones can be easily taken in places where various stages of undressing is permitted, such as in disco-bars, pool areas, beaches, and spas; where images of a sinister context may be easily taken, if the management of such venues do not implement strict measures or parameters as to the use of such devices in said premises.

D. Child Pornography in any medium

The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child prostitution and Child pornography defines “child pornography” as any representation of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes. Child pornography is a visual recording of a crime being committed and the children who appear in such pictures are, at the time the picture is being taken, subjected to degrading, abusive and humiliating acts of a criminal nature. ^[96]

Although it is clear that sexually explicit poses or acts of children, below the usually accepted 18-year minimum age threshold, are considered largely as child porn, what altogether constitutes child pornography remains under debate. It is unclear whether photographs of naked children would ipso facto be considered as child pornography. It is unclear whether the child’s genitals require to be exposed before images may be considered as such. It is likewise unclear whether only images and movies may be only form of child pornography, or whether it includes sounds and texts as well. Further, it is unclear whether child nudity, which is imbued with artistic merit, would not be exempted from such class of pornography. Furthermore, it is unclear whether simulated child pornography – whether due to the convincing appearance of non-underage females to appear as if under 18, or whether the image is completely computer-generated without visual input taken from an actual child – is included also. The issue as to child pornography becomes further muddled on the definition of a child, in light of the varying age of consent in countries, such as the United Kingdom (16) and Japan (13). Unless a national law makes clear definitions and delineations, what constitutes child pornography would be varied according to various perceptions, different standards of morality, and unclear application in light of territoriality issues in International law.

In fact, various countries have different interpretation as to what constitutes child pornography. In the United States, child pornography is defined as visual depiction of minors engaged in a sex act – such as intercourse, oral sex, or masturbation as well as the lascivious depictions of the genitals, which do not require the genitals to be uncovered. ^[97] Federal and state laws differ whether mere nudity involving minors comes under the definition of child porn, or if it would necessarily qualifies as obscene. Prohibitions against simulated child pornography have been found to be unconstitutional in the United States – unlike in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands – for being overbroad. ^[98] In Canada, material that shows someone who is or is “depicted as being” under 18, and is engaged or “depicted as engaged” in explicit sexual activity, is classified as “child pornography”. Materials judged to have “artistic merit,” however, are excluded. On the other hand, a written text that advocates or counsels sex with a child is also included. In Germany, the definition does not differ from that of conventional pornography. Sound and text can also be considered pornography. In the United Kingdom, a “child pornography” image is an “indecent photograph of a child”; there is no specific requirement of sexual content, as nudity is sufficient for an image to be indecent. In Japan, child erotica ^[99] only became illegal in 1999 following the country’s passing of its Protecting Children Online law ^[100]

The degree of gravity, or hardness, of child pornography ranges from

“0. Clothed or portrait.

“1. Naked, but not posed. Many of these were nudist-type photographs. The children in these photographs gave no sign of being aware of the camera and were usually depicted engaged in other activities such as swimming or playing ping pong, etc.

“2. Naked and posing. The children here were looking at the camera or had adopted a self conscious pose.

“3. Naked with genital contact or contact with another body. These included photographs where a hand was in contact with the genitals, and photographs showing naked children hugging or kissing each other.

“4. Oral contact with sex organs.

“5. Penetration, either anal or vaginal.

“6. Bizarre. This last category contained material with a sadomasochistic character, urine sex, and photographs on which objects were introduced into the body orifices.” ^[101]

For obvious underage girls, levels 2 to 6 are manifest instances where child pornography exists. Level 1 provides the gray area on the debate whether such nudist-type photographs would constitute child porn. The inclusion of Level 0 as a degree of gravity of child pornography in itself is debatable, as some proponents distinguish between child pornography and prêt art. Pret Art (Pre-teen Art) or Lolita Art is an erotic form of art, in which clothed adolescent or pre-pubescent girls pose for photos or videos. ^[102] The fact that models in Pret Art are not nude and the poses are not overtly sexual or otherwise harmful provides a fertile ground for debate whether Pret Art itself encourages pedophilia or whether it only depicts attractive minors similar to mainstream entertainment.

Experts cite several reasons why individuals collect child pornography. These are:

“1. Arousal and gratification: Individuals use pornography to stimulate their sexual drive and to aid in sexual stimulation. Some may only fantasise and others may use it as a prelude to actual sexual activity with minors.

“2. Validation and justification of paedophile behaviour: The paedophile uses pornography to convince him/her self that their behaviour or obsession is not abnormal, but is shared by thousand of other sensitive, intelligent and caring people.

“3. To lower a child’s inhibitions: Child abusers use pictures of other children having sex to assist in the seduction of a child and encourage reluctant children to freely participate. Images are often used as a way to show a child what the offender wants the child victim to do. Pornography may be used under the guise of “sex education” to create sexual arousal in the child.

“4. Preservation of the child’s youth: Child pornography ensures that there will always be an image of the child at the age of sexual preference.

“5. Blackmail: Sexually explicit images are used to ensure the lifelong silence of the victimised child by threatening to show the pictures to parents, peers or others. Child victims will not always report pictorial records—even if they report sexual abuse—because they may be ashamed of what happened to them as well as of their participation in the pornography.

“6. A medium of exchange: Child pornography is used as a means of establishing trust and camaraderie with other paedophiles and molesters and as proof of their good intentions when establishing contact with other exploiters. It is a medium of communication with fellow exploiters in public and private sex markets.

“7. Access: Some exploiters exchange pornography to gain access to other markets and to other children.

“8. Profit: Although most do not sell child pornography, there are some paedophiles and child molesters who sell home-made videos and photos on a one-to-one basis. Some child exploiters sell their self-produced materials to finance trips overseas to popular sex tourist destinations. ^[103]

V. National attitude on pornography

The attitudes of various nationalities vary on the issue of pornography. Western countries have relaxed restrictions on pornography. The sanctity of the freedoms of speech and information in the United States, for one, appear to be paramount, and thus the Courts therein finds censorship a greater threat than pornography. ^[104] Other countries, such as the Philippines, largely relate pornography with obscenity, and thus continue to strictly regulate, if not totally prohibit, such practice. ^[105] Still, child pornography – or kiddie porn – is almost universally prohibited, and faces the disapproval of most members of society.

Child pornography exists due to production, distribution, and possession of materials relevant thereto. Laws in different countries differ on these matters. Production and sale of child pornography is generally illegal in most countries. Mere possession, however, is illegal in the United States, United Kingdom, and Netherlands. In contrast, downloading and possession of child pornography is not specifically prohibited in Russia. ^[106]

VI. Offenses instrumental and incidental to pornography

1. Sex Tourism

Sex tourism is “tourism, partially or fully for the purpose of having sex, often with prostitutes.” Legally, Sex Tourism “refers to a program organized by travel and tourism-related establishments and individuals which consists of tourism packages or activities, utilizing and offering escort and sexual services as enticement for tourists. This includes sexual services and practices offered during rest and recreation periods for members of the military.” ^[107] Certain individuals seek sex in another country or region, possibly, due to (1) more relaxed morality laws, (2) less rigorous enforcement of laws, (3) cheaper rates, (4) more anonymity / privacy, (5) finding certain ethnic groups more attractive, (6) preferring the “work ethics” of foreign prostitutes to those of one’s own country, or (7) finding sex in tropical surroundings and a hot climate more arousing, among others. While most sex tourists only engage in this activity with other adults, a small percentage actively looks for adolescent or even younger prostitutes. ^[108]

2. Sexual Exploitation and Child Sexual Abuse

Sexual Exploitation “refers to participation by a person in prostitution or the production of pornographic materials as a result of being subjected to a threat, deception, coercion, abduction, force, abuse of authority, debt bondage, fraud or through abuse of a victim’s vulnerability.” ^[109] Child sexual abuse denotes sexual abuse of or sexual activity with children. In addition to activities that would be considered sexual abuse between adults, it includes (1) sex between adults older than a predefined age of majority and children below a predefined age of consent (generally between 12 and 18 years), (2) acting as a pimp for child prostitution, (3) inducing a child to behave sexually in a performance, or to appear in child pornography, and (4) lewd action towards children, including disseminating pornography to a minor. ^[110]

Pedophilia, Ephebophilia, and Infantophilia involve Chronophilia, i.e. a paraphilia in which the paraphile’s sexuoerotic age is discordant with his or her actual chronological age and is concordant with the age of the partner. (1) Pedophilia, or pedosexuality, is the condition of people whose primary sexual attraction is toward prepubescent children; and it is often used informally to describe people attracted to adolescents, or to describe child sex offenders. (2) Ephebophilia, or hebephilia, is the condition of adults who are attracted to postpubescent adolescents; pederasty if toward male adolescents or lolita syndrome if toward female adolescents. ^[111] (3) Infantophilia, or nepiophilia, is the sexual attraction of adults to small children (0-5 years old), inasmuch as interest in a 10-year old and a 2-year old seem rather to be different preferences. ^[112]

II. The Philippine Experience

I. Cybersex

Cybersex is sexual activity of arousal through communication by computer; and Cybersex-for-pay substantially employs the Internet, and utilizes computer cameras and microphones that allow clients to see and talk to girls doing the role play with or for them. ^[113] Such form of Internet pornography works when (1) an Internet surfer accesses a certain website on sex and chooses a woman through the photos shown in the site; (2) the surfer then contacts the operator to chat online with the selected woman; (3) the operator, through transactional tools in the adult website, asks for the surfer’s credit card number and the surfer will be charged for anywhere from $2 upwards a minute; and (4) the surfer thereafter asks the woman to perform sexual acts to be shown on the screens of the surfer’s, now subscriber’s, computer. ^[114]

Philippine Senator Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal claims that Cybersex has become a billion dollar underground industry in the Philippines, emphasizing that the operator of the Orgasmic Ventures Inc. in Las Piñas arrested January 2005 was earning at least 100,000 dollars a day. ^[115] Atty. Elfren Meneses Jr., chief of the NBI-AFFCD states that the degree of the proliferation of internet pornography in the country is doubly increasing since year 2000. Financiers or investors of such business, usually foreign nationals, are investing largely in the Philippines since they have contacts already with some Filipinos who will host the site. ^[116] Senior Supt. Rodolfo “Boogie” Mendoza, officer in charge of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), identified the cities of Angeles and San Fernando in Pampanga, Las Pi¤as and Davao as cybersex “hot spots.” ^[117] It is also claimed that Internet sex rings have spread all over the country, with satellite centers in Visayas and Mindanao, specifically in Cebu and Surigao. ^[118]

A. Organized

1. John Bagcal; Pasay City (8 May 2003)

After a month of Internet and physical surveillance by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)’s Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division (AFCCD), and on 8 May 2003, the NBI-AFCCD raided three residential apartments in Cliff Townhomes on Roberts Street, Pasay City, owned by a John Bagcal (37 years old, Filipino), due to alleged operation of internet pornography. The NBI-AFCCD team arrested around 15 pornography female models during the raid, four of them caught in the act of performing in front of Web cameras, but not the Filipino owner, who was said to be hiding in a province near Manila. The team seized several personal computers, digital cameras, telephones, and sex toys such as vibrators. Bagcal was arrested subsequently. ^[119]

2. Asianbabes.com; Angeles City, Pampanga (4 October 2004)

On 4 October 2004, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) agents arrested Roland Thys (Belgian), Dean Punke Arthur (American), Ali Dimanlao Bonjoc and are pursuing other suspects – Morley Arthur Everly, Simon Thorpe and other still unidentified members of the cybersex ring who escaped during the raid made on the houses of the suspects. The policemen, armed with 14 search warrants issued by Judge Maria Angelica Paras Quiambao of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court, swooped down on the houses located at 115 Nile Street, barangay Anunas; 240 Narciso Street; 112-A Sarmiento Street, Plaridel Subdivision, and Apple corner Pear Streets, all in Angeles City; and were able to rescue 23 “sex goddesses,” including four minors. ^[120]

On 2 November 2004, the Department of Justice had ruled in a resolution that mere possession of accessories used in the illegal activity was not enough to elevate the case against the Belgian, Roland Thys, in court. It is in the opinion of Senior Supt. Rodolfo “Boogie” Mendoza, officer in charge of the PNP CIDG that materials like pictures and messages found in a computer seized during a raid would have to be “reconstituted” by police authorities to actually prove that someone is being used for trafficking purposes . ^[121]

3. Eldon Lopez, et. al.; Angeles City, Pampanga (8 November 2004)

As part of police’s operation “Operation Magdalena” – a campaign plan against prostitution – twenty (20) persons (17 young women or so-called “cybermodels,” an employee, a computer technician, and the Internet café operator-manager – were arrested by police 8 November 2004 during a raid on a suspected cybersex den in Angeles City, Pampanga. The policemen belonging under the Central Luzon police, in tandem with agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), raided the house owned by one Sol Mesias pursuant to a search warrant issued by Judge Maria Angelica Paras Quiambao of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court. The policemen confiscated 15 computers with video cameras, communication devices and pornographic material. Arrested were Rocell C. Palo (27), Michelle M. Chua (20), Merlinda A. Atibagos (18), Mary Ann O. Galantes (21), Rose Mary P. Quibec (24), Michelle V. Nuevo (18), Monica M. Chua (19), Deanne C. Duero (19), Jennifer Ellaine Pasay (20), Marian Estrada (23), Jenny Ompad (18), Raquel V. Abala (23), Estephanie Agasite (18), Analiza R. Rosario (22), Ivory Washington (Gay, 19), Kim Cereno (25); Arthur Eric Javier (21); Reynaldo Quillao, a computer technician; Nestor Layda, a janitor-employee; and Eldon Lopez, reportedly the operator and manager of the internet café. Charges of violation of Republic Act (RA) 9208 or the Anti-trafficking of Persons Act were being prepared against the suspects. ^[122]

4. Clifford Hacket, et. al.; San Fernando, La Union (23 November 2004)

On 23 November 2004, Clifford Hacket, 40, from Colorado, USA, and his wife, Jaqueline, 24, along with three of their female employees – most of them minors: one was 15, another was 16 – were arrested during a raid on a rented house at Barangay Catbangen, San Fernando, La Union, where they had been operating the cybersex den. Seized during the raid were three computers with complete accessories, three Web cameras and speakers, assorted diskettes, pornographic VCDs and CDs, a CD writer, payrolls and the daily time records of the Hackets’ employees.

The spouses were arraigned on 14 January 2005 at the Regional Trial Court Branch 30, presided upon by Judge Alpino Florendo. The two have been transferred to the La Union provincial jail from the Poro Point police assistance center after they failed to post bail. It was alleged that the employees were paid only P50 for working eight hours a day, and that some of them posed nude and did sexual acts in front of the computer for their foreign customers abroad. The couple pleaded not guilty. ^[123]

5. Orgasmic Studios Inc.; Las Pinas, Metro Manila (21 January 2005)

On 21 January 2005, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) agents rescued twenty (20) persons engaged in live sex acts over webcams in a raid of a cybersex shop, located at apartment units A, D, F and G on Lead st., and apartment D and F Daisy st., Barangay Pilar, Las Piñas, pursuant to a search warrant issued by Judge Joselito Vibandor, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 199. The police agents arrested Aloysious Galvez of the Orgarmic Studios Inc., along with nine employees, during the raid and seized 23 computer units and peripherals, compact discs, sex toys, lingerie, and other paraphernalia (or in other accounts, 30 computers and 100 cameras). Galvez reportedly yielded a number of foreign and local bank accounts that will be investigated by the police.

The girls were distributed in fourteen rooms that served as studios where they performed various role playing acts for clients, and sometimes did live sex with a partner in front of a camera, mostly from the United States and Germany. Inside each studio at Orgasmic was a bed and an air-conditioned unit. The walls were draped with multicolored, pastel curtains. Each room had a distinct look, like one was decorated with neon lights and plastic flowers, while others were made to appear like a typical girl’s room. Scattered in some of the rooms were sex toys, costumes and skimpy lingerie. ^[124] Among the chat hosts, Sherry Passion was able to hit the longest video chat of two hours and 25 minutes on 14 Nov. 2004. As a result, Sherry was entitled to an additional 50% of her earnings as incentive and to a clothing allowance of $30. The incentive rate for best chat hosts like Sherry Passion ranges from 50% to 100%. A daily earning from $1,001 to $1,800 entitles a chat host to an additional 50%; $1,801 to $2,500 entitles her to 70%; and the incentive for $2,501 up is 90%. The four other top chat hosts in Orgasmic Studios Inc., as listed on the bulletin board were Lolita, who had earned $1,856.38; Crissy Mae, $1,479.26; Tanya, $1,186; and Sofia Paola, $1,127. The names of 30 chat hosts were listed in one of three status reports as of 20 January 2005. ^[125]

The girls are said to be composed mostly of high school students who belong to rich and middle-class families, after more documents were recovered from the office of Orgasmic Ventures upon the execution of a new search warrant. Aside from the girls’ bio-data, contracts, vouchers and financial statements, CIDG agents also recovered notices of meetings of stockholders, attesting that other people were behind the syndicate. ^[126]

6. Unverified reports ^[127]

Cebu: According to Senator Madrigal’s group, prior to the raid in La Union last 22 November 2004, Cebu police allegedly swooped down on a cybersex den. According to them, the cybersex den had strong links with the two Luzon-based cybersex syndicates. They alleged that said case allegedly did not even reach the prosecutor’s office, inasmuch as the suspects and the rescued girls were released from police custody after an influential politician allegedly intervened. The senator’s office has yet to complete the details about the raid.

Surigao: According to Senator Madrigal’s group, an Internet café owner in Surigao has reported the rampant cybersex operations there.

Makati City: According to Senator Madrigal’s group, as early as two years ago, an alleged cybersex den was raided in an exclusive subdivision in Makati City. They are now verifying reports about another cybersex den in another exclusive Makati village where most of the chat girls reportedly drive their own car and live in posh houses.

B. Unorganized

There are increasing incidents, on the other hand, of individuals exposing themselves to others for free or fee, through web cameras, without the benefit of a website exclusively made for that purpose. Said exhibitionists are found in most popular chatrooms such as those of Yahoo! Chat. Inasmuch as web camera access may either be set by the broadcasting exhibitionist as either open (free) or by permission, it is possible to require payment before permission is given. ^[128] Inasmuch as these exhibitionists do not have licensed credit card transaction facilities of their own, the mode of payment is made through “pasa-load” or “e-load,” or similar methods of money-remittances over mobile phones. The price range goes as low as fifteen (PhP 15) pesos to the usual three hundred (PhP 300) pesos. Others require pre-paid phone cards access numbers of certain phone load values or pre-paid Internet access information of specified value, before anyone interested may be given permission to view the exhibitionist exposing herself.

II. Sex Scandals

Generally, a sex scandal is a scandal in which a public figure – usually movie stars, politicians, or priests – becomes embroiled in a situation where embarrassing sexual activities or allegations thereof are publicized. ^[129] However, in Philippine context, the term “sex scandal” is usually associated to videos and images clandestinely acquired either of famous or even ordinary persons. What is necessary to constitute such videos as being sexually scandalous is that the actors therein are not aware that their acts are being caught on tape, or that the actors therein intended that the video or images being generated remain for the personal consumption of the actor’s and not of the public but which eventually leaked.

The title of the videos are generally named according to the places where the acts were committed, such as “Cebu,” “Dumaguete,” “Mindoro,” and the like. Others use prominent school names, such as “La Salle” to increase interest in the film inasmuch as it would suggest degeneracy of middle-class and higher-class teenagers in the eyes of the masses. The Mindoro Scandal appears to be latest video that circulated in the market. There are reports of other video scandals involving persons from St. Theresa College, University of San Carlos, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, among others.

1. Dumaguete Sex Scandal ^[130]

The Dumaguete Sex Scandal is a video which shows three women having sex with their boyfriends on different occasions in a bunkhouse in Dumaguete. This scandal, which caught the ire of women in Dumaguete, seemed to be a connivance between the male partners and the cameraman in taking the video, with the girlfriends completely unaware of the whole setup. The Dumaguete Scandal video appears to have been filmed as early as 1999. At that time the film was taken, the women were still single. One of them tried to commit suicide, while the two others have left the city with their reputation torn or ruined. The women were victims of their love for their boy friends at that time, not knowing that they were made mere commodities in a business venture of merchandising a pornographic video.

It appeared that the businessman who runs the lodging house placed a hidden camera in one room that he allowed to be rented at a very low price or discounted rate. This businessman recorded the sexual acts of lovers inside this room. In some occasions, without the knowledge of the businessman, his cameraman invited male friends to bring their girlfriends to do the sexual acts as the camera rolled on. The cameraman and the male friends then put several recorded sessions together into one-hour shows, duplicated and sold these initially in Mindanao. Four years later, the pornographic videos had reached local video shops. The popularity of the video increased after politicians started to denounce the video and started investigating and charging people who were believed to be responsible for its production.

Subsequently, the city filed charges against Engineer Jonathan Lim, owner of the bunkhouse, Noli Banagudos and Nicolas Siloterio, after a “vital witness” surfaced. Witness Victor Empleo – who claimed to be a close friend of Engr. Jonathan Lim, the owner of the house in Barangay Daro where the sexual activities were supposedly filmed – presented to the media some revelations of the businessman’s “operations” at the bunkhouse. However, Empleo later withdrew his affidavit. The case against Lim, Banagudos, and Siloterio is pending. Empleo, on the other hand, was charged for perjury.

2. La Salle Sex Scandal ^[131] , also known as Secret of Makati

Two teenagers captured their sexual tryst in a video. The usual circulated copy contains 3 scenes, although the 1st and 2nd scenes are sometimes taken as a single scene. The first (combined) scene involves a bald guy “Leo” and her girlfriend having sex in a motel, while the second scene involves a lesbian scene by the girlfriend and another female, with “Leo” outside of the room. The tape runs for about 70 minutes. Some unverified reports provide that there is a third scene, which involves the two teenagers again but now inside the guy’s room. The tape was meant for the couple’s enjoyment, not for mass consumption. The video was said to have been videotaped in 2001, and was allegedly sold for P35,000.

The identity of the actors and actresses are not known publicly. The public assumes the actors to be students of La Salle when the video was taken. A popular rumor is that the male was a student of DLSU-St. Benilde while the main female was from St. Scholastica. Some believed that the video was first uploaded on the Internet inasmuch as a couple of yahoogroups or e-groups had a copy of such video before the video pirates in Quiapo and Greenhills got hold of it. Another account provides that the video, supposedly in the private collection of “Leo,” along with other pornographic materials, was mistakenly lent to a friend, who circulated the video to the public. There are conflicting rumors whether the main actress actually committed suicide, or not, after the scandal broke out.

3. Boarding House Scandal, ^[132] also known as Cebu Scandal or Bisaya Bang-Bang

The show Correspondent exposed the secret porn activities of a father-daughter team. The daughter would invite her classmates over at their place for a swimming party or a cozy retreat (“tambayan”), making sure they were couples. Couples get lustful and do it in the bathroom while taking shower, or in the bedroom. The father films the whole thing from peepholes; the videos becoming part of the private collection of the father. The modus operandi of the father was exposed when the friends of the daughter heard movements in the next room, when they were assured that they were alone in the house. The friends called upon neighbors who apprehended the father, while attempting to escape by climbing a wall, and after he has tossed a bag-full of pornographic tapes over the fence. Tricycle drivers got hold of VHS tapes, and these were sold to enterprising video pirates who mass-produced them.

4. Quezon City Scandal 1 to 3 ^[133]

This scandal comes complete with cast and crew, starring GROs, shot in KTVs in and around Metro Manila and produced by Silverado Entertainment. The videos appear to have long been in circulation, except that it is only now that it proliferates in increased rates due to CD technology, the Internet, and the resourcefulness of video pirates.

III. MMS Clips

The widespread use of mobile phones with image/video-capturing capabilities; the technology shift towards Multimedia Messaging System (MMS), which provides messaging of dynamic content, over the usual Simple Messaging System (SMS), which only provides text messaging; and the adoption of the Bluetooth technology as a standard feature in mobile phones; provide the latticework for the increased incidents of sexually-explicit content that are transmitted among mobile phone subscribers.

1. Diana Zubiri MMS clip

The Diana Zubiri MMS clip circulated in late 2004 and was the first to generate interest as to the use of the mobile phones as a conduit of such kind of content. The short video appears to have been clandestinely captured through a video-capturing enabled mobile phone by one of the crew participating in a photo-shoot, featuring Diana Zubiri, possibly for a calendar or a magazine. The camera showed the layout of the studio and focused mainly on the breasts and pubic areas of Miss Zubiri.

2. Francine Prieto MMS Clip

The Francine Prieto MMS clip circulated not long after Diana Zubiri MMS clip circulated in late 2004. The video features segments of the photo-shoot of Francine Prieto that was made in South Korea. The individual who circulated the clip to Philippine mobile phone users even incorporated music to the video.

3. The Mahal MMS Clip

The Mahal MMS clip circulated soon after, with Mahal (a midget actress) sitting on the toilet bowl. Mahal appears to be aware of the camera as she waved to it. A lot of media practitioners and showbiz personalities lambasted the circulation of the clip in the market, emphasizing that it was “outrageous, not delicious.”

4. Ethel Booba MMS Clip(s)

The Ethel Booba MMS clip circulated widely early February 2005, with an image of Ethel Booba (although her hands and arms were covering her face for most of the video) stimulating herself with her fingers. Other clips appear to be less circulated, such as those which show Alex Crisano, with his prominent tattooed arm, lying beside Ethel Booba. The video(s) circulated allegedly after Crisano had his phone repaired in Greenhills, where the technician handling it discovered, took, and circulated the videos to other people. ^[134]

IV. Child Pornography

The claim, that the Philippines is the fourth largest producer of child pornography, ^[135] however, is open to debate, inasmuch as that it is not supported by any accurate empirical data. Sales figures for this particular genre of porn is hard to come by as sales thereof is largely informal inasmuch as mainstream pornographers in developed countries do not involve themselves in producing such genre, in light of regulations imposed upon the adult entertainment industry. In the United States particularly, it would not be good business sense for established and upcoming adult entertainment firms to branch out to child pornography as such will deny them the usual harbor found in the First Amendment of the US Constitution and expose them to countless and expensive legal hassles, ^[136] if not the total deprivation to exercise their industry. Such criticism of the claim, which is limited to its accuracy, should not be construed to dissuade any effort to curb child pornography.

In the Philippines, child pornography – along with sex tourism and child prostitution – thrive because of widespread poverty, public tolerance of prostitution and pornography, sex tourism, availability of advanced communication technology, lack of stringent laws against child pornography, and inefficient prosecution of perpetrators. Advances in technology, especially the Internet, have made it possible for the easier production, reproduction and dissemination of pornographic images of children. ^[137] Sexual exploitation of minors is frequent, in the form of child prostitution, child pornography, and sex tourism. Crimes related to sex tourism are difficult to prosecute because they originate or transpire outside the geographic borders and legal jurisdiction of the Philippines. ^[138]

The phenomenon is aggravated as it, more than not, involves family and close friends. The findings released by End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), which support this conclusion, are based on the detailed study of 74 cases of former and active child prostitutes across the country, the total number of which is estimated to be around 60,000 child prostitutes (ECPAT 1996). Recruiters – immediate family members [or] people known to family and friends – often justify getting children into the sex trade by saying that they are “helping” them and their families. Preventing child prostitution is hindered by a code of silence that rules the sex trade and by ineffective law enforcement. The fight against child prostitution is further hampered by the victims’ reluctance to testify and the inexperience of prosecutors. ^[139]

In 2002, a series of articles published in the People’s Journal narrated the extent of child pornography in the Philippines, and in effect, boldly exposed the country as a leading producer and distributor of child pornography, particularly on the Internet. The Philippine Senate took notice of this phenomenon but it resulted only in several committee hearings, a resolution for further study of the issue, and a Senate Bill authored by the then Sen. Loren Legarda. ^[140] The Online Protection Act for Children was pushed by Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta in 2003 but it never passed the Senate. ^[141] Although similar bills have been submitted in the present House of Representatives and Senate, it must be noted, to emphasize the time such issue has been a continuing concern, that an international conference on pornography has been held in Manila as early as 1995, calling for committed and effective law enforcement to combat the growing abuse and exploitation of children and the pornography that is a integral part of it. ^[142]

The issues on child prostitution, child pornography, and sex tourism is shared by the Philippines with neighboring Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

An observation of circulating child pornography on the Internet – utilizing the search tool in the Peer-to-Peer file-sharing program “Kazaa,” from Sharman Networks, or its competing version “Kazaa Lite Resurrection,” from Filesharing.com, and using pedophiliac search keys would point to the fact that an average of 1 out of 10 would involve Asian teenagers (the other 9 in the ratio involving Caucasians), and that an average of 1 out of 10 of those Asians would involve non-Japanese. Most of the Caucasian child pornography files available would appear to have been created in the 1970s and the 1980s, more likely before developed countries overwhelmingly condemned child pornography as illicit. It can be concluded from the above that Filipino child pornography is not circulated freely and substantially in open networks. It would be more likely that Filipino child pornography is circulated in exclusive peer groupings, or else, taken only for personal gratification as if in the form of a souvenir shot. Definitive statistics, as to the volume of Filipino child porn, may further be muddled by confusion arising from the similarity of the features of Thais and Indonesians to those of the Filipinos.

Ephebophiliac images and movies, or Asian adults simulating to appear ephebophiliac, on the other hand, are available freely on the Internet, through hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and not necessary confined to peer-to-peer (P2P) networking. A sampling of pornographic images, largely involving Filipino and Thai females, would easily be found at explicit image thumbnail (TGP) websites. The thumbnail site does not require age authentication to prevent minors from viewing its contents.

A. Overseas Prosecution

Accounts of perpetrators charged due to child pornography are found in various online newspapers from Australia, United States, and the United Kingdom. Among them are

1. In October 1995, Anthony Richard Carr, 43 years old from Seaforth, New South Wales, Australia, was the first person charged under the Child Sex Tourism Law of Australia for offenses committed against a 5-year old girl in the Philippines. Carr was initially arrested for offenses committed in Australia. A search of his home by the police yielded child pornography involving children in the Philippines. A joint Australian and Philippine investigation team found that Carr visited the Philippines to have sex with children and had paid money to a man to use his 5 year old niece in a pornographic video. Carr was sentenced to 6 years in jail by an Australian court for offenses committed in the Philippines and Australia. ^[143]
2. On 10 January 2001, Durham Wragg, 56 years old from Sheffield, United Kingdom, was convicted in the England for indecency and smuggling obscene material for 30 months. It appeared that, in 2000, he used Home Office headed paper, belonging to the former prime minister, Sir Edward Heath, to type a letter for Philippines immigration officials stating he was of good character and was going abroad to get married. He instead went to a resort outside Manila and filmed boys between 8 and 16 in his hotel bedroom. Wragg was caught at Manchester airport in May 2000 when police, searching his bag, found a camcorder. ^[144]
3. On 7 June 2002, Raymond Colin Smith, of New South Wales, Australia, was convicted under the child sex tourism law for committing 3 sexual acts with two (2) 6-year old girls in the Philippines. Smith traveled to the Philippines on the Christian Charity the Mercy Ship. He sexually molested 2 girls and produced pornography. Smith’s manager discovered this abuse and sent him back to Australia for prosecution fearing Smith may receive a death sentence if prosecuted in the Philippines. Smith was sentenced by an Australian court to 3 years jail and will be eligible for parole after 21 months. ^[145]
4. In October 2002, Bernard Lawrence Russell, a resident of San Diego, California, USA, traveled to the Philippines with the intent to engage in sexual activity with minors and, while in the Philippines, produced child pornography for the purpose of importation into the United States. On 3 December 2003, he was charged in California with traveling in foreign commerce with intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile, producing child pornography, and possessing child pornography for importation into the United States. He faces up to 45 years imprisonment if convicted on all counts. In addition, he is subject to a fine of $250,000, a mandatory special assessment of $100.00, and a three-year term of supervised release per count. ^[146]
5. In April 2003, Gordon Thomas, 29 years old from Glen Burnie, Baltimore, USA was arrested after investigators discovered he’d made a sexually explicit videotape of a child who lived next door to him., a child he was baby-sitting at the time. Investigators also found that he’d ordered child porn videos from the Philippines and had thousands of images on his computer. He pleaded guilty in June 2003 to sexually exploiting a minor by producing child pornography. He faces 10-year term in federal prison for producing child pornography, and is to serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison, when he will have to register as a sex offender. ^[147]
6. In October 2003, John W. Seljan, 85 years old, was arrested in Los Angeles, California, USA as he attempted to board a flight to the Philippines. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began its probe in August 2003 after border inspectors intercepted correspondence to two Philippine girls with ages 9 and 12 indicating that he planned to have sex with them there. At the time of his arrest, Seljan was found to have pornographic materials, sexual aids, and nearly 100 pounds of chocolates in his luggage. On 19 November 2004, Seljan was convicted on a total of 6 counts. Sentencing is scheduled for March 2005. Seljan faces a maximum sentence of 270 years in prison. ^[148]
7. In July 2004, Ronald Morris King, 54 years old from Nelson Bay, New South Wales, Australia was arrested by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and charged with 8 offenses, including 6 child sex tourism offences and offences relating to the importation of child pornography. The charges involve the alleged sexual abuse of two Filipino girls which allegedly occurred during a recent trip to the Philippines. King was first identified at the airport on his return from the Philippines with a range of photographic material in his luggage. He was later arrested after his home was searched and explicit photographs were found. King was refused bail and is due to face court. ^[149]
8. On 19 November 2004, Edilberto Datan, 60 years old, was indicted on child sex tourism and charges of producing, importing and possessing child pornography. He was arrested on 4 November 2004 as he returned from a two-month trip to the Philippines. Four (4) memory sticks, taped inside a jeans pocket of Datan’s luggage, were found by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Los Angeles International Airport and were found to contain approximately 100 sexually explicit images of Filipino boys. A search of Datan’s home later revealed an extensive child pornography collection. Datan denied any inappropriate sexual contact with them. ^[150]

B. Local Prosecution

In July 2004, seventy (70) children, aged 5 to 14, were rescued from a child pornography ring during a raid in Los Banos, Laguna, resulting in the arrest of seven people, including a Japanese national, ^[151] a certain Noritaka Ota, alias Tony. The children were lured into having an excursion, where thirty (30) children were later separated from their chaperons and were being filmed. The children were made to believe that they were modeling and are being paid P10,000. Only 6 nude pictures were taken but were sufficient to prove that the perpetrators were into illegal trade. ^[152] This incident prompted the Representative to the Philippines of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to issue a statement highlighting the widespread reality of child pornography in the Philippines.

Still, according to Alex Ramos, a member of the technical working group pursuing the bill being introduced by Senator Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal – to mete stiffer penalties on people caught distributing, creating, and purveying child pornography in the Philippines in various media including the Internet – many cases involving child pornography have been dismissed; and claimed that more than 20 cases involving child pornography that have been dismissed by courts in the last three years. Most of the courts’ ruling implied that mere possession of child pornography is not illegal. ^[153]

III. Prosecuting the Offenses

I. Criminal Law

Act No. 3815, or the Revised Penal Code (RPC), was promulgated way back in 1930, decades before the advent of computers and the Internet and before the proliferation of cheap image capturing devices, such video recorders and cameras. A number of special laws have provided means to protect both children and women from exploitation, such as Republic Act No. 7610, otherwise known as the “Special Protection And Discrimination Act,” as amended by Republic Act No. 7658 and Republic Act No. 9231, and Republic Act No. 9208 or the “Anti- Trafficking of Persons Act of 2003,” among others.

1. In General

The Revised Penal Code provision applicable in common to cybersex, sex scandal, MMS sex clips, and child pornography is Article 201, which provides:

Article 201. ^[154] Immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions and indecent shows. — The penalty of prision mayor ^[155] or a fine ranging from six thousand to twelve thousand pesos, or both such imprisonment and fine, shall be imposed upon:

1. Those who shall publicly expound or proclaim doctrines openly contrary to public morals;
1. The authors of obscene literature, published with their knowledge in any form; the editors publishing such literature; and the owners/operators of the establishment selling the same; (emphasis supplied, for production of pornographic materials, including child pornography, and distribution of which, especially in optical disks)
2. Those who, in theaters, fairs, cinematographs or any other place, exhibit, indecent or immoral plays, scenes, acts or shows, whether live or in film, which are prescribed by virtue hereof, shall include those which
1. glorify criminals or condone crimes;
2. serve no other purpose but to satisfy the market for violence, lust or pornography; (emphasis supplied, for exhibition in the practice of cybersex and other forms of streaming pornography)
3. offend any race or religion;
4. tend to abet traffic in and use of prohibited drugs; and
5. are contrary to law, public order, morals, and good customs, established policies, lawful orders, decrees and edicts;
3. Those who shall sell, give away or exhibit films, prints, engravings, sculpture or literature which are offensive to morals. (emphasis supplied, for production and distribution of pornographic materials, especially in optical disks)

In case Article 201, by certain circumstances, does not apply; Article 200 of the Revised Penal Code provides:

Article 200. Grave scandal. – The penalties of arresto mayor and public censure shall be imposed upon any person who shall offend against decency or good customs by any highly scandalous conduct not expressly falling within any other article of this Code.

2. Cybersex and Child Pornography

A. Act No. 3815, the Revised Penal Code

Article 201, else Article 200, of the Revised Penal Code likewise applies as to the photographs and videos that may have been produced and distributed in the commission of child abuse. The minors depicted therein are properly victims in the crime, even if they may have been willing in participating in such, as they lack maturity and lack legal capacity to provide legal consent.

In contrast, chat hosts (cybersex models), who are above 18 years old and who conduct themselves in such practice in a lewd or lustful manner, although there may be no physical sexual intercourse at all, are within the purview of Article 202 (5) of the Revised Penal Code, which provides:

Article 202. Vagrants and prostitutes; penalty. – xxx

xxx

5.Prostitutes. — For the purposes of this article, women who, for money or profit, habitually indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct, are deemed to be prostitutes.

Any person found guilty of any of the offenses covered by this articles shall be punished by arresto menor ^[156] or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos, and in case of recidivism, by arresto mayor in its medium period to prision correccional ^[157] in its minimum period or a fine ranging from 200 to 2,000 pesos, or both, in the discretion of the court.

Persons who are responsible in employing or inducing these persons into prostitution may be pursued through Article 341 of the Revised Penal Code:

Article 341. ^[158] White slave trade. — The penalty of prision mayor in its medium and maximum period shall be imposed upon any person who, in any manner, or under any pretext, shall engage in the business or shall profit by prostitution or shall enlist the services of any other for the purpose of prostitution.

Persons who are responsible in employing or inducing minors into prostitution may, in addition, be pursued through Article 340 of the Revised Penal Code.

Article 340. ^[159] Corruption of minors. — Any person who shall promote or facilitate the prostitution or corruption of persons underage to satisfy the lust of another, shall be punished by prision mayor, and if the culprit is a public officer or employee, including those in government-owned or controlled corporations, he shall also suffer the penalty of temporary absolute disqualification.

Other acts of lasciviousness, which may have been committed in line with child abuse, may also be penalized as provided by Article 339 of the Revised Penal Code, which states:

Article 339. Acts of lasciviousness with the consent of the offended party. — The penalty of arresto mayor shall be imposed to punish any other acts of lasciviousness committed by the same persons and the same circumstances as those provided in Articles 337 and 338.

B. Republic Act 9208

Section 3(a), of Republic Act No. 9208 (RA 9208, or the Anti- Trafficking of Persons Act of 2003) provides that

“Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. ^[160] (emphasis supplied)

Various acts and circumstances in RA 9208 are specifically penalized. First, Section 4 of said Act enumerates the acts constituting trafficking in persons, particularly involving prostitution, pornography and sexual exploitation, as

Section 4. Acts of Trafficking in Persons. - It shall be unlawful for any person, natural or juridical, to commit any of the following acts:

1. To recruit, transport, transfer; harbor, provide, or receive a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
2. To introduce or match for money, profit, or material, economic or other consideration, any person or, as provided for under Republic Act No. 6955, any Filipino woman to a foreign national, for marriage for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading him/her to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
3. To offer or contract marriage, real or simulated, for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling, or trading them to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor or slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
4. To undertake or organize tours and travel plans consisting of tourism packages or activities for the purpose of utilizing and offering persons for prostitution, pornography or sexual exploitation;
5. To maintain or hire a person to engage in prostitution or pornography;
6. To adopt or facilitate the adoption of persons for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
   xxx

A violation of any act enumerated in Section 4 penalizes the person guilty of committing said act(s) to suffer “the penalty of imprisonment of twenty (20) years and a fine of not less than One million pesos (P1,000,000.00) but not more than Two million pesos (P2,000,000.00).” ^[161]

Second, Section 5 of the same Act enumerates the acts that promote trafficking in persons, to wit:

Section 5. Acts that Promote Trafficking in Persons. - The following acts which promote or facilitate trafficking in persons, shall be unlawful:

1. To knowingly lease or sublease, use or allow to be used any house, building or establishment for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;
2. To produce, print and issue or distribute unissued, tampered or fake counseling certificates, registration stickers and certificates of any government agency which issues these certificates and stickers as proof of compliance with government regulatory and pre-departure requirements for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;
3. To advertise, publish, print, broadcast or distribute, or cause the advertisement, publication, printing, broadcasting or distribution by any means, including the use of information technology and the internet, of any brochure, flyer, or any propaganda material that promotes trafficking in persons;
4. To assist in the conduct of misrepresentation or fraud for purposes of facilitating the acquisition of clearances and necessary exit documents from government agencies that are mandated to provide pre-departure registration and services for departing persons for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;
5. To facilitate, assist or help in the exit and entry of persons from/to the country at international and local airports, territorial boundaries and seaports who are in possession of unissued, tampered or fraudulent travel documents for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;
6. To confiscate, conceal, or destroy the passport, travel documents, or personal documents or belongings of trafficked persons in furtherance of trafficking or to prevent them from leaving the country or seeking redress from the government or appropriate agencies; and
7. To knowingly benefit from, financial or otherwise, or make use of, the labor or services of a person held to a condition of involuntary servitude, forced labor, or slavery.

Any person found guilty of committing any of the acts enumerated in Section 5 of RA 9208 “shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment of fifteen (15) years and a fine of not less than Five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00) but not more than One million pesos (P1,000,000.00).” ^[162]

Third, Section 6 of the same Act enumerates the ways how trafficking in persons may be deemed qualified, to wit:

Section 6. Qualified Trafficking in Persons. - The following are considered as qualified trafficking:

1. When the trafficked person is a child;
2. When the adoption is effected through Republic Act No. 8043, otherwise known as the “Inter-Country Adoption Act of 1995” and said adoption is for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
3. When the crime is committed by a syndicate, or in large scale. Trafficking is deemed committed by a syndicate if carried out by a group of three (3) or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another. It is deemed committed in large scale if committed against three (3) or more persons, individually or as a group;
4. When the offender is an ascendant, parent, sibling, guardian or a person who exercises authority over the trafficked person or when the offense is committed by a public officer or employee;
5. When the trafficked person is recruited to engage in prostitution with any member of the military or law enforcement agencies;
6. When the offender is a member of the military or law enforcement agencies; and
7. When by reason or on occasion of the act of trafficking in persons, the offended party dies, becomes insane, suffers mutilation or is afflicted with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Any person found guilty of qualified trafficking under Section 6 suffers “the penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of not less than Two million pesos (P2,000,000.00) but not more than Five million pesos (P5,000,000.00).” ^[163]

Lastly, Section 7 of the same Act provides for the protection of the right of privacy of trafficked persons and the accused, to wit:

Section 7. Confidentiality. - At any stage of the investigation, prosecution and trial of an offense under this Act, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, court personnel and medical practitioners, as well as parties to the case, shall recognize the right to privacy of the trafficked person and the accused. Towards this end, law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges to whom the complaint has been referred may, whenever necessary to ensure a fair and impartial proceeding, and after considering all circumstances for the best interest of the parties, order a closed-door investigation, prosecution or trial. The name and personal circumstances of the trafficked person or of the accused, or any other information tending to establish their identities and such circumstances or information shall not be disclosed to the public.

In cases when prosecution or trial is conducted behind closed-doors, it shall be unlawful for any editor, publisher, and reporter or columnist in case of printed materials, announcer or producer in case of television and radio, producer and director of a film in case of the movie industry, or any person utilizing tri-media facilities or information technology to cause publicity of any case of trafficking in persons.

Any person who violates Section 7 of the law suffers “the penalty of imprisonment of six (6) years and a fine of not less than Five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00) but not more than One million pesos (P1,000,000.00).” ^[164]

Certain persons, natural or juridical, are meted additional penalties or limitations when they violate RA 9208, that is:

1. Corporation, partnership, and other juridical persons

   If the offender is a corporation, partnership, association, club, establishment or any juridical person, the penalty shall be imposed upon the owner, president, partner, manager, and/or any responsible officer who participated in the commission of the crime or who shall have knowingly permitted or failed to prevent its commission. ^[165]

   The registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and license to operate of the erring agency, corporation, association, religious group, tour or travel agent, club or establishment, or any place of entertainment shall be cancelled and revoked permanently. The owner, president, partner or manager thereof shall not be allowed to operate similar establishments in a different name. ^[166]

2. Foreigners

If the offender is a foreigner, he shall be immediately deported after serving his sentence and be barred permanently from entering the country. ^[167]

3. Government employees or officials

   Any employee or official of government agencies who shall issue or approve the issuance of travel exit clearances, passports, registration certificates, counseling certificates, marriage license, and other similar documents to persons, whether juridical or natural, recruitment agencies, establishments or other individuals or groups, who fail to observe the prescribed procedures and the requirement as provided for by laws, rules and regulations, shall be held administratively liable, without prejudice to criminal liability under RA 9208. The concerned government official or employee shall, upon conviction, be dismissed from the service and be barred permanently to hold public office. His/her retirement and other benefits shall likewise be forfeited. ^[168]

4. Adopter

   Conviction by final judgment of the adopter for any offense under RA 9208 shall result is the immediate rescission of the decree of adoption.

5. Person who engages services of trafficked persons

   Any person who buys or engages the services of trafficked persons for prostitution shall be penalized, on his/her first offense for six (6) months of community service, as may be determined by the court, and a fine of Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00). On his/her second and subsequent offenses, such person may be penalized to imprisonment of one (1) year and a fine of One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00). ^[169]

C. Republic Act 7610

In addition, Article V, Section 9, of Republic Act No. 7610 establishes that “Obscene Publications and Indecent Shows” involves

“Any person who shall hire, employ, use, persuade or coerce a child to perform in obscene exhibitions and indecent shows, whether live or in video, pose, or model in obscene publications or pornographic materials or to sell or distribute the said materials shall suffer the penalty of prison mayor in its medium period.

If the child used as a performer, subject or seller/distributor is below twelve (12) years of age, the penalty shall be imposed in its maximum period.

Any ascendant, guardian, or person entrusted in any capacity with the care of a child who shall cause and/or allow such child to be employed or to participate in an obscene play, scene, act or movie shall be imposed a penalty of prison mayor in its medium period.” ^[170]

3. Sex Scandal optical discs and sexually-explicit MMS clips

Article 201, or Article 200 of the Revised Penal Code, are the provisions applicable to these forms of pornography. It is only by certain circumstances, such as that a pornographic material is included to an otherwise ambivalent statement, that Articles 355 and 359 of the Revised Penal Code may attach, as the issue as to “imputation” is emphasized. Article 355 provides:

Article 355. Libel means by writings or similar means. — A libel ^[171] committed by means of writing, printing, lithography, engraving, radio, phonograph, painting, theatrical exhibition, cinematographic exhibition, or any similar means, shall be punished by prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods or a fine ranging from 200 to 6,000 pesos, or both, in addition to the civil action which may be brought by the offended party.

Article 359, on the other hand, of the Revised Penal Code provides:

Article 359. Slander by deed. — The penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period or a fine ranging from 200 to 1,000 pesos shall be imposed upon any person who shall perform any act not included and punished in this title, which shall cast dishonor, discredit or contempt upon another person. If said act is not of a serious nature, the penalty shall be arresto menor or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos.

II. Civil Damages

Civil damages, clearly, may be had for sex clip leakages that occur with sex scandal optical disc and MMS clips distribution.

The right to dignity, and the right to privacy of communication and correspondence, are rights protected by the Constitution. Section 11 of Article II of the 1987 Constitution (Declaration of Principles and State Policies”states that the

“The State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights.”

Section 3(1) states that the

“privacy of communication and correspondence shall be inviolable except upon lawful order of the court, or when public safety or order requires otherwise, as prescribed by law.”

In consonance to these, Article 26 of the Civil Code provides that

“every person shall respect the dignity, personality, privacy and peace of mind of his neighbors and other persons. The following and similar acts, though they may not constitute a criminal offense, shall produce a cause of action for damages, prevention and other relief:

1. Prying into the privacy of another’s residence;
2. Meddling with or disturbing the private life or family relations of another;
3. Intriguing to cause another to be alienated from his friends;
4. Vexing or humiliating another on account of his religious beliefs, lowly station in life, place of birth, physical defect, or other personal condition.”

Article 32 of the Civil Code, in turn, provides that

“Any public officer or employee, or any private individual, who directly or indirectly obstructs, defeats, violates or in any manner impedes or impairs any of the following rights and liberties of another person shall be liable to the latter for damages:

xxx

(11)The privacy of communication and correspondence;

xxx

In any of the cases referred to in this article, whether or not the defendant’s act or omission constitutes a criminal offense, the aggrieved party has a right to commence an entirely separate and distinct civil action for damages, and for other relief. Such civil action shall proceed independently of any criminal prosecution (if the latter be instituted), and may be proved by a preponderance of evidence.

The indemnity shall include moral damages. Exemplary damages may also be adjudicated.

The responsibility herein set forth is not demandable from a judge unless his act or omission constitutes a violation of the Penal Code or other penal statute.”

III. Evidence

The Rules on Electronic Evidence ^[172] was made effective on 1 August 2001 and initially applied to civil, quasi-judicial and administrative proceedings pending after the date of effectivity, and was a direct result of the enactment of Republic Act No. 8792 ^[173] , or the Electronic Commerce Act. The Supreme Court notes at the head of the Rules (Administrative Memorandum No. 01-7-01-SC) that

Acting on the Memorandum dated 18 June 2001 of the Committee on the Revision of the Rules of Court to Draft the Rules on E-Commerce Law [R.A. No. 8792] submitting the Rules on Electronic Evidence for this Court’s consideration and approval, the Court Resolved to APPROVE the same.

The Rules on Electronic Evidence shall apply to cases pending after their effectivity. These Rules shall take effect on the first day of August 2001 following their publication before the 20th of July in two newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines. (17th July 2001.) ^[174]

The Rules were amended on 24 September 2002 to include criminal cases in its coverage, effective 24 October 2002. ^[175] Section 2, Rule 1, of AM No. 01-7-01-SC, now reads as

Section 2. Cases covered. - These Rules shall apply to the criminal and civil actions and proceeding, as well as quasi-judicial and administrative cases. ^[176]

Electronic document is defined by Section 1 (h), Rule 2, of the Rules on Electronic Evidence as

(h) “Electronic document” refers to information or the representation of information, data, figures, symbols or other modes of written expression, described or however represented, by which a right is established or an obligation extinguished, or by which a fact may be proved and affirmed, which is received, recorded, transmitted, stored, processed, retrieved or produced electronically. It includes digitally signed documents and any print-out or output, readable by sight or other means, which accurately reflects the electronic data message or electronic document. For purposes of these Rules, the term “electronic document” may be used interchangeably with “electronic data message”.

In relation thereto, “Electronic data message” is defined by Section 1 (g), Rule 2, of the same Rules as

(g) “Electronic data message” refers to information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic, optical or similar means.

On the other hand, “Ephemeral electronic communication,” is defined by Section 1(k), of the same Rule, which provides

(k) “Ephemeral electronic communication” refers to telephone conversations, text messages, chatroom sessions, streaming audio, streaming video, and other electronic forms of communication the evidence of which is not recorded or retained. (emphasis supplied)

Electronic documents are functional equivalents of paper-based documents, as provided by Section 1, Rule 3 of the said Rules, to wit:

Section 1. Electronic documents as functional equivalent of paper-based documents. – Whenever a rule of evidence refers to the term of writing, document, record, instrument, memorandum or any other form of writing, such term shall be deemed to include an electronic document as defined in these Rules.

and the fact that a privilege communication is in the form of an electronic document does not lose the confidential character, as provided for by Section 3, of the same Rule:

Section 3. Privileged communication. – The confidential character of a privileged communication is not lost solely on the ground that it is in the form of an electronic document.

Electronic documents are admissible as evidence, according to Section 2, Rule 3 of the said Rules, which provides:

Section 2. Admissibility. – An electronic document is admissible in evidence if it complies with the rules on admissibility prescribed by the Rules of Court and related laws and is authenticated in the manner prescribed by these Rules.

Particularly, the manner audio, video and similar evidence is made admissible is provided by Section 1 of Rule 11, of the Rules on Electronic Evidence, to wit:

Section 1. Audio, video and similar evidence. – Audio, photographic and video evidence of events, acts or transactions shall be admissible provided it shall be shown, presented or displayed to the court and shall be identified, explained or authenticated by the person who made the recording or by some other person competent to testify on the accuracy thereof.

Section 2 of Rule 11, of the said Rules, on the other hand, provides for the admissibility of ephemeral electronic communications, to wit:

Section 2. Ephemeral electronic communications. – Ephemeral electronic communications shall be proven by the testimony of a person who was a party to the same or has personal knowledge thereof. In the absence or unavailability of such witnesses, other competent evidence may be admitted.

A recording of the telephone conversation or ephemeral electronic communication shall be covered by the immediately preceding section.

If the foregoing communications are recorded or embodied in an electronic document, then the provisions of Rule 5 shall apply.

Electronic videos, audios and images, whether in electronic or optical medium, although strictly not “Electronic documents” according the first sentence of Section 1(h), Rule 2, may be argued by technologically-inclined professionals to be within its context in light of the second sentence of said section in relation to Section 1 (g) of the same Rule, inasmuch as basic electronic formats of written documents, images, audio files, and video remain in binary ^[177] and ASCII ^[178] modes (the latter with proper file format identifiers at the start of its code), which are merely interpreted as user-viewable text, sound, images, and videos by appropriate computer programs or applications. This argument, however, may result to the same outcome as to the issue as to the definition of “hacking,” ^[179] which favors a legal conclusion without consideration to technical persuasion. It thus may be said that electronic video, images and audio, and similar forms are not “Electronic documents” although they constitute “Electronic evidence” nonetheless; in the same manner that photographs, videos, and phonographic records are not considered as part of such class of evidence which are documentary, but rather are included as object evidence.

The question remains whether the application of the Rules of Electronic Evidence is limited to cases based on its original context, that which relates to the Electronic Commerce Act and thus which involves purely business transactions, but which has been extended to include criminal cases; or whether the application of the Rules of Electronic Evidence is to be broadly applied to be deemed an extension of Rules 128 to 134 of the Revised Rules of Court, and thus the Rules apply to criminal cases even those without business complexion. A perusal of Section 1, Rule 1 of the Rules of Electronic Evidence – which provides

Section 1. Scope. – Unless otherwise provided herein, these Rules shall apply whenever an electronic document or electronic data message, as defined in Rule 2 hereof, is offered or used in evidence.

– and a perusal of the general definitions of electronic data message and electronic documents in Section 1 (g) and (h) of Rule 2, respectively – as quoted earlier – do not suggest data transmission to be exclusively confined to business transactions, and thus favor the second conclusion as to the applicability of the Rules.

IV. Miscellaneous: Convention and Treaty obligations

The Philippines is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and thus is obligated to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. Article 34 of said Convention requires that parties must protect children from being coerced to engage in any unlawful sexual activity, from being exploited in prostitution, and from being used in pornographic performances and materials. Article 34 of the Convention specifically provides:

“States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. For these purposes, States Parties shall in particular take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent:

1. The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity;
2. The exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices;
3. The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials.” ^[180]

In addition to this, the Philippines also ratified in 2002 the “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography,” ^[181] which calls for governments to ensure that adults involved in the exploitation of children are punished, and that children who have been sexually exploited, abused, or trafficked receive services to allow for their full social reintegration and their physical and psychological recovery.

IV. Proposals

Dealing with computer-related crimes in the Philippines is still in its infancy. The law enforcement agencies and the judicial system are still ill-equipped to handle high-tech cases, both in terms of experience and equipment. As computer-related crimes exist across borders, technical assistance is necessary among countries, with equipment and training being provided by more developed countries. For one, the United States of America set up a computer crime unit in the Philippines in 2003. Atty. Ivan John E. Uy, chairman of the subcommittee on e-commerce of the Rules of Court committee and Director of the Management Information System Office of the Supreme Court, said that the computer crime unit was envisioned to supervise all computer-related crimes that will be manned by Philippine government officials skilled in computer crime investigation and prosecution. ^[182] The question of enforcement is a constant, and the outcome of such relies upon the political will of public authorities. The question of the existence of law should never laxly taken, and should be revised and reconciled with the reality of the situation, inasmuch as the ones who aim to violate the law are active and crafty in finding ways to bend, if not break, or go around the law.

I. Cybersex

The prominence of organized cybersex business, with the recent raid on Orgasmic Studios Inc., highlighted the need for stricter laws against obscenities. ^[183] Although certain senators, such as Senate President Franklin Drilon and Senator Mar Roxas, claim that there are enough laws to prosecute prostitution and sexual exploitation through the Internet, in light of the anti-trafficking law, certain sectors remain to see them as inadequate and lax. Still, there is an agreement that proper agencies should pursue the drive against cybersex vigorously. Supplementary to this, legislators propose that said agencies should be adequately equipped in terms of technology, human resources, state-of-the-art equipment and the necessary facilities and logistics. ^[184]

Certain measures are proposed herein:

1. There should be stricter fines against operators of organized cybersex business, and effectively classify such operators in the same level as other participants in organized crime.
2. There should be better system of facilities inspection to determine whether a cybercafe, indeed operates for the benefit of public, or is being used as a front to cater to private indulgences.
3. There should be a central registry of all mobile phone numbers, whether pre-paid or post-paid, to determine the identity of the person who used said SIM card in the perpetuation of prohibited acts. Said registry should also include transaction dates of transfer of SIM.
4. There should also be proper regulations as to the operation of money transfers over mobile phones, inasmuch as mobile phones may be utilized to acquire remote remittance of money generated by illicit means, in a degree lesser than what may be placed within the purview of the money laundering law.
5. There should be proper mapping of Philippine websites, featuring adult content, even if such do not espouse the .ph domain. Pornography is not condoned within Philippine jurisdiction, and thus there is no reason to mitigate or qualify the issue with arguments involving financial viability, or implication as to lost taxes.
6. There should be a central registry of all MAC addresses for computers (and similar devices) to determine the identity of the user-owner of the computer which may be used in the perpetuation of prohibited acts. Said registry should also include transaction dates of sale of the computer (and allied devices).

II. Sex Scandals and lewd MMS clips

The penalty of prision mayor or a fine ranging from six thousand to twelve thousand pesos or both is obviously inadequate to impose upon a violator of Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code. Stiffer fines should be made inasmuch as the reputation and dignity of those who took part in the film, particularly the women, are forever ruined. Producers and distributors of such film or videos should be fined more harshly inasmuch as they have the financial means and the boldness to mass produce the films, and therefore magnifies the damage that would be inflicted upon the ad hoc porn actors depicted in the video/film/clip.

Further, some other measures are proposed herein:

1. Further regulation must be made in the proper use of telecommunication networks, especially as to the transmission of objectionable content.
2. There should be a central registry of all computer peripherals and consumer devices which are able to transfer electronic data into optical media. A system to determine the relation, or impose the determination of a relation, between the optical disc writer (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW) and the optical disc written, should be made.
3. There should be an tailor-fit article within the Revised Penal Code as to crimes against honor that would shield persons from dishonor, discredit, or contempt, even without manifest imputation by words or writing, but by imputation by analogous deed (such as unconsented distribution). Stiff penalties should be imposed against persons who leak personal sexual documents, which incriminates other persons besides the distributor himself/herself, to the public.
4. There should be a law imposing higher penalties against people who install hidden cameras and other paraphernalia to spy upon people in their intimate moments. Thus, there should be an equivalent law to the Wire Tapping Law – as the latter dwells solely on sound recordings – that would apply to videos and pictures. This is necessary inasmuch as a University instructor in Bacolod City, to illustrate, installed surveillance equipment or a hidden camera inside his boarding house’s bathroom. ^[185]
5. Proper laws must be made in preventing voyeurs from utilizing any camera-like devices to acquire images of strangers, especially for malicious reasons (such as downblousing and upskirting), in public places and communal spaces.
6. Proper laws must be made to strengthen the rights of people to dignity and privacy.
7. Laws regulating data handling by technicians, whether as to computers, mobile phones or analogous devices, must be in place.

III. Child Pornography

The disturbing fact involving websites containing Filipino teens is that this conclusively shows that pornography involving Filipino females exists, and the volume of which is increasingly growing. The other disturbing fact is that the models appearing therein, especially in the Filipina 18 and Manila 18 websites, are in the borderline of legal, depending on the proper appraisal of the models’ age. The costumes use by the models, i.e. high school uniforms, provide a confusing assessment as to the real age of such models, taking into mind that most high school students graduate usually at the age of 17 to 18. ^[186] The two conclusions that can be made from the images are that (1) the models are by themselves underage, or that (2) the models simulate to appear to be underage. Such dilemma provides a good debate ground, therefore, whether child pornography would necessary include simulated child pornography.

Although child pornography may be prosecuted according to Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code and Republic Act 7610, the laws are obviously inadequate to specifically handle such evil. It is necessary that a specific law pertaining to child pornography should be promulgated, to distinguish such phenomenon from regular pornography, and to provide harsher measures against those who indulge in it, in light of the clear vulnerability of children to such illicit practice. The law should include simulated child pornography as part of child pornography. Arguments as to valid role-playing cannot even be taken into consideration inasmuch as pornography, and not just child pornography, is illegal in our jurisdiction; such materials being obscene and do not easily attach to the concept of freedom of expression as in the United States. The law should provide the proper penalties for its production, possession, and/or distribution; not necessarily as a compound act but such acts taken individually; but with proper provisions to provide consideration to child abuse investigators, enforcers, and legitimate researchers. The penalty should be more than prision mayor, or a Php 6,000 to Php 12,000 fine. The penalty should be per count of illicit material and not as a lump sum of all the acts. Our present laws pale in comparison to the penalties provided to similar cases in the United States. ^[187]

It is also necessary to provide certain laws or amendments ^[188] to existing laws to strengthen and further facilitate the successful acquisition of the custody of the perpetrator, especially if the perpetrator is a foreigner, and prevent him to take flight from the Philippines, and to make him liable to his crime in the Philippines even if his native country has acquired custody of the perpetrator and has punished him accordingly with their laws.

Thus, in fine, the following are being proposed:

1. That simulated child pornography should be included in the class of pornography determined to be child pornography.
2. Registration of computer users in Internet cafés should be mandatory, to facilitate the apprehension of law offenders who transmit illicit materials through anonymous webmail accounts through these facilities.
3. That stiff penalties be made against adults who distribute pornographic materials or encourage the viewing of such materials to minors.
4. That stiffer penalties be made against pedophiles who take theatrical and photographic mementos of the children that they ravish, and that further stiffer fines be made against pedophiles who distribute these pornographic materials to other individuals.
5. That mere possession of child pornography be made to constitute a crime, and that production and distribution be considered as separate counts of committed crime.
6. That civil penalties be determined not by the lump sum of confiscated materials but per piece of photograph (and its electronic equivalent), and per determined duration for videos.
7. That proper laws be made or strengthened to effectively prevent foreigners who committed criminal acts in the Philippines from leaving the country, and that stiff sanction be given to other individuals who advice, aid, or by such analogous act, the felon to take flight.
8. That Philippine courts be given jurisdiction, through the enactment of the proper law, over instances of publication of child pornography, whether stored in servers outside the country, as long as the individual depicted therein is a Filipino. (A proposal to enforce global jurisdiction, which is recognized in acts enumerated in Article 2 of the Revised Penal Code.)
9. That proper laws be made to curb the current situation that the Philippines is made a prime destination due to sex tourism.
10. That extradition treaties with developed countries, especially Australia, United States, and the United Kingdom, be strengthened to acquire jurisdiction over foreigners who, although remotely done in their respective countries, are cultivating child and women-related crimes in the Philippines.
11. That the culpability of foreigners who have taken flight from the Philippines from crimes committed within Philippine jurisdiction remain even if the foreigner has been charged in their own country for violation of their laws, and thereby be subjected to extradition after they have served their sentence in their country, if not yet dead.

1. Prostitution. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 27, 2005 from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. [ http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?tocId=9376014 ] [back]
2. Hogg, Charles. What is Pornography? Pornography and the Internet in the United States. Citing the definition of VanDeBeer, Donald. 1992. “Pornography.” Encyclopedia of Ethics. New York: Garland Publishing. [ http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr500/fall1999/www_presentations/c_hogg/define.htm ] [back]
3. Section 3(k), Republic Act 9208. RA 9208 is entitled “An Act to Institute Policies to Eliminate Trafficking in Persons especially Women and Children, establishing the necessary institutional mechanism for the protection and support of trafficked persons, providing penalties for its violations, and for other purposes.” See the Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence Databank - The Lawphil Project. [ http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2003/ra_9208_2003.html ] [back]
4. Anderson, Kerby. The Pornographic Plague. Probe Ministries. Citing the Final Report of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, ed. Michael McManus (Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill Press, 1986), 8. [ http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/pornplag.html ] [back]
5. When A Man’s Eye Wanders. What is pornography? Retrieved 10 February 2005 from RBC Ministries. [ http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/cb991/page1.html ] [back]
6. Anderson, Kerby. The Pornographic Plague. Probe Ministries. Supra, see note 4. [back]
7. Legal Definition of Obscene, Obscenity. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from The Lectric Law Library’s Lexicon [ http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/o002.htm ] [back]
8. See the case of Miller vs. California, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States (413 U.S. 15). See FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resources, Forms, and Code. [ http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=413&invol=15 ] [back]
9. See the case of Pita vs. Court of Appeals, decided by the Philippine Supreme Court (GR 80806, 5 October 1989.) See the Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence Databank - The Lawphil Project [ http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1989/oct1989/gr_80806_1989.html ] [back]
10. Anderson, Kerby. The Pornographic Plague. Probe Ministries. Supra, see note 4. [back]
11. Legal Definition of Obscene, Obscenity. Supra, see note 7. [back]
12. Pornography. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 27, 2005 from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. [ http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?tocId=9375674 ] [back]
13. Section 3(c), RA 9208. Supra, see note 3. [back]
14. Samples of Japanese and Indian erotic art may be found in the following websites: Kama Sutra. Rotten dot com: An archive of disturbing illustration. [ http://www.rotten.com/library/sex/kama-sutra/ ] , Semans, Anne. Your Guide to Sexuality. Sexuality: The Kama Sutra; A Peek Inside the Classic Pillow Book. About Inc. [ http://sexuality.about.com/cs/sexualtechnique/a/kamasutra.htm ] , Strom, Leslie. Sex Manuals in Relationship Hell. Get Lost Magazine .Com [ http://www.getlostmagazine.com/reviews/1999/9904relbooks/eroticbooks.html ] , and The Art of Loving. Shunga - Japanese Erotic Art. [ http://www.theartofloving.ca/art.asp ] [back]
15. Bellis, Mary. “History of Photography and the Camera - Pinhole Camera to Daguerreotype.” Retrieved January 27, 2005 from About, Inc. [ http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blphotography.htm ] [back]
16. Bellis, Mary. “The History of the Motion Picture.” Retrieved January 27, 2005 from About, Inc. [ http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmotionpictures.htm ] [back]
17. Polaroid (a trademark of the Polaroid Corporation) is “the name of a type of synthetic plastic sheet which is used to polarise light,” while a Polaroid camera is “a type of camera with self-developing film usually called an ‘instant camera’. The invention of modern instant cameras is generally credited to American scientist Edwin Land, who unveiled the first commercial instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1947, 10 years after founding the Polaroid Corporation.” (Polaroid, and Polaroid Camera. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid ] and [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_camera ] , respectively) [back]
18. Super 8mm film is “a motion picture film format that was developed in the 1960s and released on the market in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older 8mm home movie format.” (Super 8mm film. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8mm_film ] ) Super 8 quickly became the accepted amateur and home movie standard and would remain so until the advent of the home video camera.” (Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Joey Brunton’s website. Super 8 – History. [ http://members.tripod.com/~bruntonj/history.html ] ) [back]
19. Sony’s “Betamax” is the 12.7 mm (0.5 inch) home videocassette tape recording format derived from the earlier, professional 19.1 mm (0.75 inch) U-matic video cassette format. (Betamax. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax ] ) [back]
20. The Video Home System, better known by its acronym VHS, is a recording and playing standard for video cassette recorders (VCRs), developed by JVC and launched in 1976. VHS officially stands for Video Home System, but it initially stood for Vertical Helical Scan, after the relative head/tape scan technique. Several improved versions of VHS exist, most notably S-VHS, an improved analog standard, and D-VHS, which records digital video onto a VHS form factor tape. (VHS. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS ] ) [back]
21. VHS-C (C for compact) is used in some camcorders. Since VHS-C tapes are based on the same magnetic tape as full size tapes, they can be played back in standard VHS players using an adapter. (VHS. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS ] ) [back]
22. Binary, in mathematics, is “Base two; i.e. a number representation consisting of zeros and ones used by practically all computers because of its ease of implementation using digital electronics and Boolean algebra.” (Binary -definition by Dict.die.net [ http://dict.die.net/binary/ ] , citing the definition by the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (10 October 2003). [ http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/ ] ) [back]
23. Sample images of Memory Cards may be found at the following websites/webpages: (1) Secure Digital Card, at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_Card ] ; (2) Memory stick, at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_stick ] ; Multi Media Card, at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi_Media_Card ] ; Flash Memory Card - CompactFlash. Retrived 10 February 2005 from Lexar Media Inc. http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/compact_flash.html ] ; Keydrive, at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keydrive ] ; XD-Picture Card, at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XD-Picture_Card ] ; SmartMedia, at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartMedia ] . A note of memory cards, as a subset of data storage devices, was necessary as memory sticks were used in the physical transport of child pornography in the Datan case in November 2004; an overview of what transpired is available in the next chapter “Philippine Experience” under the heading “Child Pornography.” [back]
24. Disk storage is “a group of data storage mechanisms for computers; data is transferred to planar surfaces or disks for temporary or permanent storage.” (Disk storage. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_storage ] ) [back]
25. Bubble memory is “a type of computer memory that uses a thin film of a magnetic material to hold small magnetized areas, known as bubbles, which each store one bit of data. Bubble memory was a very promising technology in the 1970s, but flopped commercially when hard disks came to proliferate in the 80s.” (Magnetic Bubble Memory. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bubble_memory ] ) [back]
26. An EEPROM (E²PROM or Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), is “a non-volatile storage chip used in computers and other devices. Unlike an EPROM, an EEPROM can be programmed and erased multiple times electrically. It may be erased and reprogrammed only a certain number of times, ranging from 100,000 to 1,000,000, but it can be read an unlimited number of times. Flash memory is a later form of EEPROM.” (EEPROM. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEPROM ] ) [back]
27. Memory cards are “solid-state electronic flash memory data storage devices used with digital cameras, handheld and laptop computers, phones, music players, video game consoles and other electronics. They offer re-recordability, power-free storage, small form factor and rugged environmental specifications.” (Memory Card. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_card ] ) [back]
28. An optical disc, in computing, sound reproduction, and video, “is a flat, circular, usually polycarbonate disc whereon data is stored. This data is generally accessed when a special material on the disc (often aluminum) is illuminated with a laser diode. The information on an optical disc is stored sequentially on a continuous spiral track from the innermost track and outwardmost track.” (Optical Disc. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc ] ) [back]
29. The CD-ROM (“Compact Disc Read-Only Memory” (ROM) ) is “a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. A CD-ROM is a flat, plastic disc with digital information encoded on it in a spiral from the center to the limit, the outside edge.” A CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) is “a thin (1.2 mm) disc made of polycarbonate with a 120 mm or 80 mm diameter that is mainly used to store music or data. Unlike conventional CD media, a CD-R has a core of dye instead of metal.” Compact Disc Rewritable, or CD-RW, is “a rewritable version of CD-ROM. Whereas standard prerecorded compact discs have their information permanently stamped into an aluminium reflecting layer, CD-RW discs have a phase-change recording layer and an additional aluminium reflecting layer.” (CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-ROM, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-RW, respectively.) [back]
30. DVD is “an optical disc storage media format that is used for playback of movies with high video and sound quality and for storing data. DVDs are similar in appearance to compact discs. The DVD format was a result of the unity of two high density optical storage standards in development; one was the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Disc (SD), supported by Toshiba, Time-Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson and JVC. The official DVD specification was initially released in September 1996 and is maintained by the DVD Forum, formerly the DVD Consortium. ‘DVD’ was originally an initialism for ‘digital video disc’; some members of the DVD Forum believe that it should stand for ‘digital versatile disc’, to indicate its potential for non-video applications.” A DVD-R (properly pronounced as DVD R or DVD Dash R, not DVD Minus R) is “an optical disc with a larger storage capacity than a CD-R, typically 4.7 GB (4.4 GiB) instead of 700 MB, although the original capacity of the standard was 3.95 GB. A DVD-R can be written to only once, whereas a DVD-RW is rewritable.” The DVD-R and the DVD-RW formats wer developed by Pioneer in autumn of 1997 and November 1999, respectively . DVD-R and DVD-RW are supported by over 90% and 75% of today’s DVD players, respectively, and both are approved by the DVD Forum. A competing format is DVD+R (also DVD+RW for the rewritables). The DVD+R and the DVD+RW formats were developed by a coalition of corporations, known as the DVD+RW Alliance (which include Philips), in mid 2002 and late 1997, respectively. Although both DVD+R and DVD+RW have not yet been approved by the DVD Forum, DVD+R and DVD+RW discs are playable in 87%-95%, and 3/4 of today’s DVD players, respectively. Hybrid drives that can handle both formats, often labeled DVD±R are very popular since there is no universal standard yet for recordable DVDs. All DVD discs are composed of two 0.6 mm thick polycarbonate discs, bonded with an adhesive to each other. One contains the guiding groove and is coated with the recording dye and aluminum reflector. The other one (for single-sided discs) is an ungrooved, uncoated “dummy” disc to assure mechanical stability of the sandwich structure, and compatibility with the compact disc standard geometry which requires a total disc thickness of about 1.2 mm. Double-sided discs have two grooved, recordable disc sides, and require the user to flip the disc to access the other side (unless a dual-pickup drive is used). (DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-R, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RW, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_plus_R, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_plus_RW, respectively.) DVD-RAM (Digital Versatile Disc –- Random Access Memory) is “a disc specification presented in 1996 by the DVD Forum, which specifies rewritable DVD-RAM media and the appropriate DVD writers. DVD-RAM media are used in computers as well as camcorders and personal video recorders since 1998. Compared with other DVDs, DVD-RAM is much more similar to a harddisk, as it has concentric tracks instead of one long spiral track. Unlike the competing formats DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW, you do not need special DVD burning software to write or read DVD-RAMs on a computer. DVD-RAMs can be accessed like a usual floppy disk or hard drive.” (DVD-RAM. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RAM ] ) [back]
31. Blu-ray Disc is “a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by a group of leading consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which succeeds the Blu-ray Disc Founders (BDF). Because it uses blue lasers, which have shorter wavelengths than traditional red lasers, it can store substantially more data in the same amount of physical space as previous technologies such as DVD and CD. One single-layer Blu-ray Disc can hold about 25GB or almost four hours of HDTV audio and video, and the dual-layer disc can hold approximately 50GB. The data transfer rate is 36Mbps, but 2x speed prototypes with a 72Mbps transfer rate are now in development.” (Blu-ray disc. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_disk ] ) [back]
32. A MiniDisc (MD) is a “disc-based data storage device for storing any kind of data, usually audio. The technology was introduced in 1992. Along with Philips’ Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) system, MiniDisc was targeted as a replacement for analog cassette tapes as the recording system for Hi-Fi equipment. What became a very brief format war ended when DCC was phased out in 1996. MD Data, a version for storing computer data was announced by Sony in 1993, but it never gained significant ground, so today MDs are used primarily for audio storage.” (Minidisc. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minidisc ] ) [back]
33. A hard disk (or “hard disc” or “hard drive” or “hard disk drive”) is “a computer storage device, that uses rigid rotating platters. It stores and retrieves digital data from a planar magnetic surface. Information is written to the disk by transmitting an electromagnetic flux through an antenna or write head that is very close to a magnetic material, which in turn changes its polarization due to the flux. The information can be read back in a reverse manner, as the magnetic fields cause electrical change in the coil or read head that passes over it.” (Hard Disc. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk ] ) [back]
34. A floppy disk is “a data storage device that comprises a circular piece of thin, flexible (hence “floppy”) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic wallet. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD.” (Floppy disc. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk ] ) [back]
35. The Zip drive is “a removable disk storage system, introduced by the Iomega company in late 1994.” In the Zip system, “a set of read/write heads mounted on a linear actuator flies over a rapidly spinning floppy disk mounted in a sturdy cartridge, and a simplified drive design that reduced its overall cost. This resulted in a disk that has all of the 3.5” floppy’s convenience, but holds much more data, with performance that is much quicker than a standard floppy drive.” (Zip drive. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_drive ] ) [back]
36. Holographic storage uses two laser beams, a reference and a data beam to create an interference pattern at a medium where the two beams intersect. This intersection causes a stable physical or chemical change which is stored in the medium. This is the write sequence. During reading, the action of the reference beam and the stored interference pattern in the medium recreates this data beam which may be sensed by a detector array. The medium may be a rotating disk containing a polymeric material, or an optically sensitive single crystal. Since it involves no moving parts, holographic data storage will be far more reliable than existing hard disk technologies. IBM has already demonstrated the possibility of holding 1GB of data in a crystal the size of a sugar cube and of data access rates of one trillion bits per second. (Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDSS ] ) [back]
37. CompactFlash (CF) was originally a type of data storage device, used in portable electronic devices. As a storage device, it typically uses flash memory in a standardized enclosure, and was first specified and produced by SanDisk Corporation in 1994. CF devices are used in handheld and laptop computers (which may or may not take larger form-factor cards), digital cameras, and a wide variety of other devices, including desktop computers. As of 2004, CompactFlash cards are available in capacities from about 8 megabytes to about 8 gigabytes. (CompactFlash. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactFlash ] ) [back]
38. Memory Stick is “a format for removable flash memory data storage devices, created by Sony in October 1998 as an alternative to CompactFlash, Secure Digital, Multi Media Card, and SmartMedia for use in their own devices. While Sony uses the format almost exclusively, it has not proved popular with other manufacturers. Poor sales and adoption have forced Sony to license the technology to other makers, leading to a small drop in prices. The original Memory Stick interface could only address 128 MB of memory physically due to design flaws. This led to the introduction of Memory Stick PRO variant with faster transfer speeds and a capacity of 256 MB and higher. Sony is slowly phasing out the old purple and white Memory Sticks, replacing them with comparable technology based on the MS PRO specs.” (Memory stick. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_stick ] ) [back]
39. Secure Digital (or SD), is “a flash memory data storage device based on Toshiba’s earlier Multi Media Cards (MMC). Measuring 32mm by 24mm by 2.1mm, SD is slightly thicker, and includes features that allow the secure exchange of data, enabling usage restrictions such as copyright protection. As of October 2004, SD is the most popular flash memory format, having overtaken the older and larger Compact Flash. PDA devices such as Pocket PCs and Palm-powered devices frequently feature SD slots. PalmOne, HP, Dell, Toshiba, and other PDA manufacturers have made SD a standard on all of their PDAs. SD is fairly well supported in the digital camera industry as well, used in all Kodak cameras. A smaller version of the SD card has been developed. The miniSD card measures 21.5mm by 20mm by 1.4mm and is backward-compatible with the SD card via an adapter. Currently available capacities (as of December 2004) range up to 512 MB. It can be use with Kodak Easyshare and similar SD compatible cameras.” (Secure Digital Card. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_Card ] ) [back]
40. A Multi Media Card (MMC) is a solid state disk or flash memory data storage device. It is based on Toshiba’s NAND-based flash memory, and is therefore much smaller than earlier systems based on Intel NOR-based memory such as Compact Flash. MMC is about the size of a postage stamp: 24mm x 32mm x 1.5mm. MMC is a popular storage medium for very small electronic devices, like mobile phones, PDAs and digital audio players (MP3 players). It comes in 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB sizes as of 2004. Most of the Nokia smartphones in 2004 use a smaller version of MMC cards called Reduced Size MMC, or RS-MMC. They are half the height of a normal MMC card: 24mm x 16mm x 1.5mm.” (Multi Media Card. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi_Media_Card ] ) [back]
41. SmartMedia is “a trademark of Toshiba Corp. for flash memory. SmartMedia cards provide mobile data storage in a small interchangeable format. Originally named Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC), a SmartMedia card consists of a single NAND flash EEPROM chip embedded in a thin plastic card. It can be used for storage in many digital systems including PDAs, Olympus digital cameras, pagers and MP3 digital music players. SmartMedia cards are limited to 128MB. The format has been superseded by the smaller and higher capacity XD-Picture Card format. Nevertheless, major manufacturers continue to produce SmartMedia cards as of 2004 due to the large number of users.” (SmartMedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartMedia ] ) [back]
42. xD-Picture Card is “a format of flash memory data storage device developed and introduced to the market in July 2002 by Olympus and Fujifilm, and manufactured by the Toshiba Corporation. xD cards are designed for the digital photography market, and are an alternative to and competitor of formats such as Compact Flash (CF), Sony Memory Sticks, and microdrives. xD-Picture Cards are available in a range of sizes, from 16 MB to 512 MB. Fujifilm’s marketing department note that the name “xD-Picture Card” was inspired by the phrase “eXtreme Digital”. (XD-Picture Card. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XD-Picture_Card ] ) [back]
43. A keydrive is “a small removable data storage device that uses flash memory and a USB connector. Keydrives are also known as keychain drive, pen drive, pocket drive, thumb drive, jump drive, USB flash drive, USB flash memory drive, USB key, USB memory key, USB stick, Piripicho (primarily in Spanish), and Kikinou (primarily in French) Keydrives are typically small, lightweight devices, around 50 mm long and weighing only around 100 grams. A keydrive consists of a small printed circuit board encased with a robust plastic casing, making the drive sturdy enough to be carried around in a pocket, as a keyfob, or on a lanyard around the owner’s neck. Only the USB connector protrudes from this plastic protection, and this is often covered by a removable plastic cap. Keydrives are active only when powered by a connection to a computer, and require no external power source or battery power when not in use.” (Keydrive. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keydrive ] ) [back]
44. Personal digital assistants (PDAs or palmtops) are “handheld devices that were originally designed as personal organizers, but became much more versatile over the years. A basic PDA usually includes a clock, date book, address book, task list, memo pad and a simple calculator. One major advantage of using PDAs is their ability to synchronize data with desktop, notebook and desknote computers.” (Personal Digital Assistant. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 16 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Personal_digital_assistant ] ) [back]
45. Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) is “the logical evolution of the Short Message Service (SMS), a text-only messaging system for mobile networks. MMS-enabled mobile phones enable subscribers to compose and send messages with one or more multimedia (digital photos, audio, video) parts. Mobile phones with built-in or attached cameras, or with built-in MP3 players are very likely to also have an MMS messaging client — a software program that interacts with the mobile subscriber to compose, address, send, receive, and view MMS messages.” (Multimedia Messaging System. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_System ] ) [back]
46. Certain MMS-enabled mobile phones have palmtop capabilities – the so-called converged mobile devices – such as Sony Ericsson’s P910 series, P802, and R380 series phone models, among others; and Nokia’s 9500 Communicator, 9300, and 9210i Communicator phone models, among others. Nokia claims to have adopted the Series 60 platform, away from the conventional palmtop technology. Nokia claims that Series 60 is a feature rich software platform for smartphones with advanced data capabilities, inasmuch as the platform has a ready-made user interface that can be adapted to suit different needs, and a rich set of applications, and a common user interface components and development tools for implementing new applications. Nokia implemented Series 60 in its 7710, 6681, 6680, 6670, and 6630 Smartphone models, among others, and licensed it to other phone manufacturers such as LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens. Sony Ericcson’s and Nokia’s websites are available as http://www. sonyericsson.com, and http://www.nokia.com, respectively. [back]
47. A digital audio player (DAP) is “a device that stores, organizes and plays digital music files. It is more commonly referred to as an MP3 player (because of that format’s ubiquity), but DAPs often play many additional file formats. Some formats are proprietary, such as MP3, Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Audio Codec (AAC). Some of these formats also may incorporate digital rights management (DRM), such as WMA DRM, which are often part of paid download sites. Other formats are patent-free or otherwise open, such as Vorbis, FLAC, and Speex (all part of the Ogg open multimedia project).” One of the most popular models was Diamond Multimedia’s PMP300 introduced in 1998, which popularized DAPs. The current market leader is Apple’s iPod. Other models include those of Dell (Digital Jukebox), Creative (Nomad/Zen), and IRiver. (Digital Audio Player. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_player ] ) [back]
48. The personal video recorder (PVR), also called digital video recorder (DVR), is a consumer electronics device that records television shows to a hard disk in digital format. Many models are now also offering the facility to record onto DVDs.” This makes the “time shifting” feature much more convenient, and also allows for “trick modes” such as pausing live TV, instant replay of interesting scenes, and skipping advertising. Most PVR recorders use the MPEG format for encoding analog video signals. The most popular PVRs on the market are the TiVo and DNNA’s ReplayTV, although most home electronics manufacturers – such as Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, and Samsung – now offer models. Many satellite and cable companies are incorporating PVR functions into their set-top boxes. (Personal Video Recorder. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_video_recorder ] ) TiVo and DNNA’s ReplayTV websites are available as http://www.tivo.com and http://www.replaytv.com, respectively. [back]
49. Bayonet Neill-Concelman is “a type of RF connector used for terminating coaxial cable. The BNC connector is one of a larger class of “bayonet connectors”, named after the resemblance to the standard twist-on attachment for a bayonet. It was commonly used on 10base2 thin Ethernet networks, both on cable interconnections and network cards.” (BNC Connector. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNC_connector ] ) [back]
50. A local area network is “a computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or group of buildings. Most LANs connect workstations and personal computers. Each node (individual computer ) in a LAN has its own CPU with which it executes programs, but it also is able to access data and devices anywhere on the LAN. This means that many users can share expensive devices, such as laser printers, as well as data. There are many different types of LANs Ethernets being the most common for PCs. Most Apple Macintosh networks are based on Apple’s AppleTalk network system, which is built into Macintosh computers.” (What is local-area network? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary. A word definition from the Webopedia Computer Dictionary. Retrieved 10 February 2005. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/l/local_area_network_LAN.html. www.webopedia.com. Copyright, 2004 Jupitermedia. All rights reserved.) [back]
51. In general, a hub is a centre point; and specifically in computing, a hub is “a computer networking device that connects multiple Ethernet segments together making them act as a single segment. When using a hub, every attached device shares the same broadcast domain and the same collision domain. Therefore, only one computer connected to the hub is able to transmit at a time. Depending on the network topology, the hub provides a basic level 1 OSI model connection among the network objects (workstations, servers, etc). It provides bandwidth which is shared among all the objects, compared to switches, which provide a dedicated connection between individual nodes.” (Hub. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hub ] ) [back]
52. A router is “a computer networking device that forwards data packets toward their destinations through a process known as routing. Routing occurs at layer 3 of the OSI seven-layer model. Routing is most commonly associated with the Internet Protocol, although other less-popular routed protocols remain in use. In recent times many routing functions have been added to LAN switches, creating “Layer 2/3 Switches” which route traffic at near wire speed. Routers are also now being implemented as Internet gateways, primarily for small networks like those used in homes and small offices. This application is mainly where the Internet connection is an always-on broadband connection like cable modem or DSL. These are not “routers” in the true sense, but the terminology has been confused with network address translation.” (Router. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router ] ) [back]
53. Universal Serial Bus (USB) provides a serial bus standard for connecting devices, usually to a computer, but it also is in use on other devices such as set-top boxes, game consoles and PDAs. A USB system has an asymmetric design, consisting of a host controller and multiple devices connected in a tree-like fashion using special hub devices. There is a limit of 5 levels of branching hubs per controller. Up to 127 devices may be connected to a single host controller, but the count must include the hub devices as well. A modern computer likely has several host controllers so the total useful number of connected devices is beyond what could reasonably be connected to a single computer. There is no need for a terminator on any USB bus, as there is for SCSI and some others. USB can connect peripherals such as mice, keyboards, scanners, digital cameras, printers, hard disks, and networking components. For multimedia devices such as scanners and digital cameras, USB has become the standard connection method. For printers, USB has also grown in popularity and started displacing parallel ports because USB makes it simple to add more than one printer to a computer. As of 2004 there were about 1 billion USB devices in the world. (Universal serial bus. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_serial_bus ] ) [back]
54. A system of LANs connected in such a manner is called a wide-area network (WAN). (What is local-area network? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary. A word definition from the Webopedia Computer Dictionary. Retrieved 10 February 2005. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/l/local_area_network_LAN.html. www.webopedia.com. Copyright, 2004 Jupitermedia. All rights reserved.) [back]
55. An intranet is “a local area network (LAN) used internally in an organization that is sometimes access restricted. Sometimes the term refers only to the most visible service, the internal web site. The same concepts and technologies of the Internet such as clients and servers running on the Internet protocol suite are used to build an intranet. HTTP and other internet protocols are commonly used as well, especially FTP and email. There is often an attempt to use internet technologies to provide new interfaces with corporate ‘legacy’ data and information systems. There does not necessarily have to be any access from the organisations’s internal network to the internet itself. Where there is, there will be a firewall with a gateway through which all access takes place. (Intranet. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat ] ) [back]
56. A bulletin board system (BBS) is a “computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users.” It was the precursor to the modern form of the World Wide Web (WWW) and other aspects of the Internet, and was popular from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. (Bulletin Board System. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system ] ) [back]
57. HTTP (for HyperText Transfer Protocol) is “the primary method used to convey information on the World Wide Web. The original purpose was to provide a way to publish and receive HTML pages. Development of HTTP was co-ordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium and working groups of the Internet Engineering Task Force, culminating in the publication of a series of RFCs, most notably RFC 2616, which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use today. HTTP differs from other TCP-based protocols, in that connections are usually terminated once a particular request (or related series of requests) has been completed. This design makes HTTP ideal for the World Wide Web, where pages regularly link to pages on other servers.” (HTTP. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP ] ) [back]
58. The World Wide Web (“WWW”, or simply “Web”) is “an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI, the superset of the more commonly-known Uniform Resource Locator [URL] used for website addressing).” The Web is made up of three standards: The Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which specifies how each page of information is given a unique “address” at which it can be found; Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which specifies how the browser and server send the information to each other, and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), a method of encoding the information so it can be displayed on a variety of devices. (World Wide Web. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_wide_web ] ) [back]
59. Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) is an application layer Internet standard protocol used to retrieve email from a remote server to a local client over a TCP/IP connection. Nearly all individual Internet service provider email accounts are accessed via POP3. POP3 and its predecessors are designed to allow end users with intermittent connections such as dial-up connections to retrieve email when connected, and then to view and manipulate the retrieved messages without needing to stay connected. Although most clients have an option to leave mail on server, email clients using POP3 generally connect, retrieve all messages, store them on the user’s PC as new messages, delete them from the server, and then disconnect. In contrast, the newer, more capable IMAP email retrieval protocol supports both connected and disconnected modes of operation. Email clients using IMAP generally leave messages on the server until the user explicitly deletes them. (Post Office Protocol. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Protocol ] ) [back]
60. The Internet Message Access Protocol (commonly known as IMAP, and previously called Interactive Mail Access Protocol) is an application layer Internet protocol used for accessing email on a remote server from a local client. IMAP and POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for email retrieval. Both are supported by virtually all modern email clients and servers, although in some cases in addition to vendor-specific, typically proprietary, interfaces. (Internet Message Access Protocol. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Message_Access_Protocol ] ) [back]
61. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the de facto standard for email transmission across the Internet. SMTP is a relatively simple, text-based protocol, where one or more recipients of a message are specified (and in most cases verified to exist) and then the message text is transferred. Since this protocol started out as purely ASCII text-based, it did not deal well with binary files. Standards such as MIME were developed to encode binary files for transfer through SMTP. Today, most SMTP servers support the 8BITMIME extension, permitting binary files to be transmitted almost as easily as plain text. (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol ] ) [back]
62. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is “a software standard for transferring computer files between machines with widely different operating systems. It belongs to the application layer of the Internet protocol suite. FTP is an 8-bit client-server protocol, capable of handling any type of file without further processing, such as MIME or Uuencode. However, FTP has extremely high latency; that is, the time between beginning the request and starting to receive the required data can be quite long, and a sometimes-lengthy login procedure is required.” (File Transfer Protocol. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_transfer_protocol ] ) [back]
63. Usenet is “a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Protocol) network of the same name. Users read and post e-mail-like messages (“articles”) to a number of distributed newsgroups, categories that resemble bulletin board systems in most respects. Newsgroups are often arranged into hierarchies, theoretically making it simpler to find related groups. The term top-level hierarchy refers to the hierarchy defined by the prefix prior to the first dot. The most commonly known hierachies are the usenet hierarchies. So for instance newsgroup rec.arts.sf.starwars.games would be in the rec.* top-level usenet hierarchy, where the asterisk (*) is defined as a wildcard character. There were seven original major hierarchies of usenet newsgroups, known as the “Big 7”: (1) comp.*—Discussion of computer-related topics, (2) news.*—Discussion of Usenet itself, (3) sci.*—Discussion of scientific subjects, (4) rec.*—Discussion of recreational activities (e.g. games and hobbies), (5) soc.*—Socialising and discussion of social issues, (6) talk.*— Discussion of contentious issues such as religion and politics, and (7)misc.*—Miscellaneous discussion—anything which doesn’t fit in the other hierarchies. (Usenet, and Newsgroups. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet ] and [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroup ] , respectively.) [back]
64. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. It is mainly designed for group (one-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication. IRC is an open protocol that uses TCP and optionally SSL. An IRC server can connect to other IRC servers to expand the IRC network. Users access IRC networks by connecting a client to a server. There are many client and server implementations. Most IRC servers do not require users to log in, but a user will have to set a nickname before being connected. IRC is a plaintext protocol, which means that it is fully possible (though quite inconvenient) to use IRC via a basic byte-stream client such as netcat or telnet. However, the protocol only uses a slightly modified version of ASCII, and does not originally provide any support for non-ASCII characters in text, with the result that many different, incompatible character encodings (such as ISO 8859-1 and UTF-8) are used. (Internet Relay Chat. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat ] ) [back]
65. An instant messenger is “a computer application which allows instant text communication between two or more people through a network such as the Internet. An instant messenger is a client which hooks up to an instant messaging service. Instant messaging differs from e-mail in that conversations happen in realtime. Also, most services convey an “online status” between users, such as if a contact is actively using the computer. Generally, both parties in the conversation see each line of text right after it is typed (line-by-line), thus making it more like a telephone conversation than exchanging letters. Instant messaging applications may also include the ability to post an away message, the equivalent of the message on a telephone answering machine. Popular instant messaging services on the public Internet include Jabber, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, .NET Messenger Service and ICQ. These services owe many ideas to an older (and still popular) online chat medium known as Internet Relay Chat (IRC).” (Instant messenger. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messenger ] ) [back]
66. A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is “any network that does not rely on dedicated servers for communication but instead mostly uses direct connections between clients (peers). A pure peer-to-peer network does not have the notion of clients or servers, but only equal peer nodes that simultaneously function as both “clients” and “servers” to the other nodes on the network. This model of network arrangement differs from the client-server model where communication is usually relayed by the server.” File sharing networks such as FastTrack, FreeNet, GNUtella, and OpenNap are examples of peer-to-peer networks. Other examples are those of Applejuice (which includes Applejuice Client), BitTorrent (which includes ABC, Azureus, BitAnarch, BitComet, BitSpirit, BitTornado, BitTorrent, BitTorrent++, BitTorrent.Net, G3 Torrent, mlMac, MLDonkey, QTorrent, SimpleBT, Shareaza, TomatoTorrent, and TorrentStorm), CAKE (which includes BirthdayCAKE), Direct Connect (which includes BCDC++, CZDC++, DC++, NeoModus Direct Connect, and JavaDC), eDonkey (which includes aMule, eMule, LMule, MindGem, MLDonkey, mlMac, Shareaza, and xMule), ed2k or eDonkey 2000 (which includes eDonkey, and eMule), FastTrack (which includes giFT, Grokster, iMesh, Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, K++, Diet Kaza, CleanKazaa, Mammoth, MLDonkey, mlMac, and Poisoned), Freenet (which includes Entropy, Freenet, and Frost), Gnutella (which includes Acquisitionx, BearShare, Gnucleus, Grokster, gtk-gnutella, Limewire, MLDonkey, mlMac, Morpheus, Phex, Poisoned, Swapper, Shareaza, and XoloX), Gnutella2 (which includes Adagio, Gnucleus, MLDonkey, mlMac, Morpheus, and Shareaza), Joltid PeerEnabler (which includes Altnet, Bullguard, Joltid, Kazaa, and Kazaa Lite), Kademlia (which includes eMule, MindGem, MLDonkey, and VarVar), Manolito/MP2P (which includes Blubster, Piolet, and RockItNet), Napster (which includes Napigator, OpenNap, and WinMX), WPNP (which includes WinMX), among other networks (including Akamai, Alpine, Ares Galaxy, Audiogalaxy network, Carracho, Chord, The Circle, Coral, Dexter, Diet-Agents, EarthStation 5, Evernet, FileTopia, GNUnet, Grapevine, Groove, Hotwire, iFolder, konspire2b, MUTE, and OpenFT). (Peer-to-peer. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer ] ) [back]
67. AirPort is “a wireless networking protocol from Apple Computer designed for both Macintosh and PC computers. It is based on the IEEE 802.11b (also known as Wi-Fi) standard and has been certified to be compatible with other 802.11b devices. According to Apple, AirPort is capable of speeds up to 11 megabits per second and distances of 150 feet from the base station. The current version support encryption up to 128 bits. AirPort Extreme is the new generation of AirPort, and is based on the IEEE 802.11g specification, and is fully compatible with all 802.11b and 802.11g devices, with speeds up to 54 megabits per second.” (AirPort. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort ] ) [back]
68. IEEE 802.11 (or Wi-Fi) “denotes a set of Wireless LAN standards developed by working group 11 of IEEE 802. The term is also used to refer to the original 802.11, which is now sometimes called ‘802.11legacy.’ The 802.11 family currently includes six over-the-air modulation techniques that all use the same protocol, the most popular (and prolific) techniques are those defined by the a, b, and g amendments to the original standard; security was originally included, and was later enhanced via the 802.11i amendment. Other standards in the family (c–f, h–j, n) are service enhancement and extensions, or corrections to previous specifications. 802.11b was the first widely accepted wireless networking standard, followed (somewhat counterintuitively) by 802.11a and 802.11g. 802.11b and 802.11g standards use the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band. The 802.11a standard uses the 5 GHz band. Operating in an unregulated frequency band, 802.11b and 802.11g equipment can incur interference from microwave ovens, cordless phones, and other appliances using the same 2.4 GHz band.” (IEEE 802.11. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11 ] ) [back]
69. HomeRF operates at the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band. It supports all CLASS features such as caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, and distinctive ringing allowing it to support standard phone features that users are familiar with. HomeRF supports up to 8 toll-quality voice connections, 8 priority-based multimedia streams, and access to data at a rate of 10 Mb/s in version 1.0 of the standard and as high as 20 Mb/s in version 2.0 of the standard. Transmission range is about 100 meters but can be extended at the cost of the data rate. HomeRF also supports low power modes and secure communications using 128 bit encryption against eavesdroppers and denial of service attacks. (HomeRF Overview. [ http://nesl.ee.ucla.edu/courses/ee206a/2001s/homeworks/hw1_submits/vadim/hw1_p2.htm ] [back]
70. Bluetooth is “an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs) first developed by Ericsson, later formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which was established by Sony Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia, and joined by other companies.” Bluetooth is “a wireless radio standard primarily designed for low power consumption, with a short range (up to 10 meters and with a low-cost transceiver microchip in each device. It can be used to wirelessly connect peripherals like printers or keyboards to computers, or to have PDAs communicate with other nearby PDAs or computers. The standard also includes support for more powerful longer-range devices suitable for constructing a wireless LAN. Every Bluetooth device can simultaneously maintain up to 7 connections, but only one active connection at the time. These groups (maximum of 8 devices: 1 host and 7 slaves) are called piconets. The Bluetooth specification also enables the possibility to connect two piconetworks together, with one master device acting as a bridge. These devices have yet to come, though are supposed to appear within the next two years. Every device can be configured to constantly announce its presence to nearby devices in order to establish a connection. It is also possible to password protect a connection between two devices so that no one can listen in.” (Bluetooth. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth ] ) [back]
71. Ibid. [back]
72. Ethernet is “a frame-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). It defines wiring and signaling for the physical layer, and frame formats and protocols for the media access control (MAC)/data link layer of the OSI model. Ethernet is mostly standardized as IEEE’s 802.3. It has become the most widespread LAN technology in use during the 1990s to the present, and has largely replaced all other LAN standards such as token ring, FDDI, and ARCNET.” (Ethernet. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet ] ) [back]
73. Infrared (IR) radiation is “electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than visible light, but shorter than microwave radiation. Infrared radiation spans three orders of magnitude and has wavelengths between 700 nm and 1 mm.” IR data transmission is “employed in short-range communication among computer peripherals and personal digital assistants. These devices usually conform to standards published by IrDA, the Infrared Data Association. Remote controls and IrDA devices use infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to emit infrared radiation which is focused by a plastic lens into a narrow beam. The beam is modulated, i.e. switched on and off, to encode the data. The receiver uses a silicon photodiode to convert the infrared radiation to an electric current. It responds only to the rapidly pulsing signal created by the transmitter, and filters out slowly changing infrared radiation from ambient light.” (Infrared. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared ] ) [back]
74. In computing, JPEG is a commonly used standard method of compressing photographic images. The file format which employs this compression is commonly also called JPEG; the most common file extensions for this format are .jpeg, .jfif, .jpg, .JPG, or .JPE although .jpg is the most common on all platforms. The name stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG itself specifies only how an image is transformed into a stream of bytes, but not how those bytes are encapsulated in any particular storage medium. A further standard, created by the Independent JPEG Group, called JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format) specifies how to produce a file suitable for computer storage and transmission (such as over the Internet) from a JPEG stream. In common usage, when one speaks of a “JPEG file” one generally means a JFIF file, or sometimes an Exif JPEG file. There are, however, other JPEG-based file formats, such as JNG. JPEG/JFIF is the most common format used for storing and transmitting photographs on the World Wide Web. It is not as well suited for line drawings and other textual or iconic graphics because its compression method performs badly on these types of images (the PNG and GIF formats are in common use for that purpose; GIF, having only 8 bits per pixel is not well suited for colour photographs, but PNG may have as much or more detail than JPEG). (JPEG. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG ] ) [back]
75. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is “a bitmap image format that is widely used on the World Wide Web, both for still images and for animations. The format was introduced in 1987 by CompuServe in order to provide a color image format for their file downloading areas, replacing their earlier RLE format which was black and white only. GIF became popular because it used LZW data compression, which was more efficient than the run-length encoding that formats such as PCX and MacPaint used, and fairly large images could therefore be downloaded in a reasonable amount of time, even with very slow modems.” (GIF. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gif ] ) [back]
76. .BMP or .DIB (device-independent bitmap) is a bitmapped graphics format used internally by the Microsoft Windows graphics subsystem (GDI), and used commonly as a simple graphics file format on that platform. Images are generally stored with a color depth of 2 (1-bit), 16 (4-bit), 256 (8-bit), 65,536 (16-bit), or 16.7 million (24-bit). An alpha channel (for transparency) may be stored in a separate file, where it is similar to a greyscale image. 8-bit images can also be greyscale instead of color. BMP files are usually not compressed, so they are typically much larger than compressed image file formats for the same image. The typical true-color bitmap size in bytes can be calculated as: (width in pixels)×(height in pixels)×3. So an 800×600 image will occupy almost 1.5 megabytes. As such they are generally unsuitable for transferring images on the Internet or other slow or capacity-limited media. Compressed imaged employ RLE algorithm. (Windows Bitmap. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP ] ) [back]
77. PNG (Portable Network Graphic), sometimes pronounced as “ping”, is a relatively new bitmap image format that is becoming popular on the World Wide Web and elsewhere. PNG was largely developed to deal with some of the shortcomings of the GIF format and allows storage of images with greater color depth and other important information. The motivation for creating the PNG format came in early 1995, after Unisys announced that it would be enforcing software patents on the LZW data compression algorithm used for GIF. PNG uses a non-patented lossless data compression method known as deflation. This method is combined with prediction, where for each image line, a filter method is chosen that predicts the colour of each pixel based on the colours of previous pixels and subtracts the predicted colour of the pixel from the actual color. An image line filtered in this way is often more compressible than the raw image line would be. On most images, PNG can achieve greater compression than GIF, but some implementations make poor choices of filter methods and therefore produce unnecessarily large PNG files. (PNG. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNG ] ) [back]
78. AVI, an acronym for Audio Video Interleave, is “a file format designed to store both audio and video data in a standard package to allow its simultaneous playback. It was introduced by Microsoft in November 1992, as part of the Video for Windows technology. It is a special case of the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF), which divides the file’s data up into data blocks called “chunks”. Each “chunk” is identified by a FourCC tag. An AVI file takes the form of a single chunk in an RIFF formatted file, which is then subdivided into two mandatory “chunks” and one optional “chunk”. By way of the RIFF format, the audio/visual data contained in the “movi” chunk can be encoded or decoded by a software module called a codec. The codec translates between raw data and the data format inside the chunk. An AVI file may therefore carry audio/visual data inside the chunks in almost any compression scheme, including: Full Frames (Uncompressed), Intel Real Time Video, Indeo, Cinepak, Motion JPEG, Editable MPEG, VDOWave, ClearVideo / RealVideo, QPEG, MPEG-4, and others.” (AVI. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi ] ) [back]
79. The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a small group charged with the development of video and audio encoding standards. Since its first meeting in 1988, MPEG has grown to include approximately 350 members from various industries and universities. MPEG’s official designation is ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 WG11. MPEG has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards: (1) MPEG-1: Initial video and audio compression standard. Later used as the standard for Video CD, and includes the popular Layer 3 (MP3) audio compression format. (2) MPEG-2: Transport, video and audio standards for broadcast-quality television. Used for over-the-air digital television ATSC,DVB and ISDB, digital satellite TV services like DirecTV, digital cable television signals, and (with slight modifications) for DVD video discs. (3) MPEG-3: Originally designed for HDTV, but abandoned when it was discovered that MPEG-2 was sufficient for HDTV. (4) MPEG-4: Expands MPEG-1 to support video/audio “objects”, 3D content, low bitrate encoding and support for Digital Rights Management. A new (newer than MPEG-2 Video) higher efficiency video codec is included (an alternative to MPEG-2 Video), see H.264. (5) MPEG-7: A formal system for describing multimedia content. The MPEG codecs use lossy data compression using transform codecs. In lossy transform codecs, samples of picture or sound are taken, chopped into small segments, transformed into a frequency space, and quantized. The resulting quantized values are then entropy coded. The moving picture coding systems such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 add an extra step, where the picture content is predicted from past reconstructed images before coding, and only the differences from the reconstructed pictures, and any extra information needed to perform the prediction, are coded. (MPEG. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG ] ) [back]
80. Windows Media Video (WMV) is a generic name for the set of streaming video technologies developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV is not built solely on Microsoft in-house technology. From version 7 (WMV7), Microsoft has used its own non-standard version of MPEG-4. The video stream is often combined with an audio stream of Windows Media Audio. WMV files are customarily played by Windows Media Player on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh systems. Some third-party players also exist, such as MPlayer for Linux, which play back WMV by using the FFmpeg implementation of the WMV codecs. Raw WMV video is packed into an AVI or Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) container. The resulting files may be named .avi if it is an AVI-contained file, or .wmv or .asf if it is an ASF file, but .wmv files are to be ASF files with audio/video content only. WMV is usually found in the AVI file container when encoded with Microsoft’s Windows Media Video 9 VCM software for Windows. Microsoft’s Windows Media Player for the Mac does not support all WMV encoded files since it supports only the ASF file container. (Windows Media Video. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Video ] ) [back]
81. RealMedia is a digital sound (RA) and video (RM) file format that is the registered trademark of RealNetworks. This format is typically used to stream media through the net. It is played with the RealOne player. (Real Media. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealMedia ] ) [back]
82. MP3 (or, more precisely, MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3) is “an audio compression algorithm capable of greatly reducing the amount of data required to reproduce audio, while sounding like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. In the first half of 1995, MP3 files, file representations of MPEG-1 Audio Layer III data, began flourishing on the Internet. Its popularity was mostly due to, and interchangeable with, the successes of companies and software packages like Nullsoft’s Winamp, mpg123 and the now Roxio-owned Napster. MP3 bitrate is 128 kilobits per second (kbit/s), a little inferior to CD quality audio but with a compression ratio of approximately 11:1.” (MP3. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3 ] ) [back]
83. WAV (or WAVE), short for WAVEform audio format, is a “Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing audio on PCs. It is a variant of the RIFF bitstream format method for storing data in “chunks”, and thus also close to the IFF and the AIFF format used on Macintosh computers. It takes into account some peculiarities of the Intel CPU such as little endian byte order. The RIFF format acts as a “wrapper” for various audio compression codecs. It is the main format used on Windows systems for raw audio. Though a WAV file can hold audio compressed with any codec, by far the most common format is PCM audio data. Since PCM uses an uncompressed, lossless storage method which keeps all the samples of an audio track, professional users or audio experts may use the WAV format for maximum audio quality. WAV audio can also be edited and manipulated with relative ease using software.” (WAV. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV ] ) [back]
84. Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary compressed audio file format developed by Microsoft. It was initially a competitor to the MP3 format, but with the introduction of Apple’s iTunes Music Store, it has positioned itself as a competitor to the Advanced Audio Coding format used by Apple. It is part of the Windows Media framework. An initial reason for the development of WMA might have been that MP3 technology is patented and has to be licensed from Thomson for inclusion in the Microsoft Windows operating system. A WMA file is almost always encapsulated in an Advanced Systems Format (ASF) file. The resulting file may have the filename suffix “wma” or “asf” with the “wma” suffix being used only if the file is strictly audio. The ASF file format specifies how metadata about the file is to be encoded, akin to the ID3 tags used by MP3 files. ASF is also patented in the United States. Files in this format can be played using Windows Media Player, Winamp (with certain limitations, DSP plugin support and DirectSound output is disabled using the default WMA plugin) and many other alternative media players. The FFmpeg project have reverse-engineered and reimplemented the WMA format to allow its use on POSIX compliant operating systems such as Linux. Windows Media Audio supports digital rights management using a combination of elliptic curve cryptography key exchange, DES block cipher, a custom block cipher, RC4 stream cipher and the SHA-1 hashing function. (Windows Media Audio. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audio ] ) [back]
85. Real Media. Supra, see Note 81. [back]
86. Ross, Mark. “Cybersex and the Law.” Brief for the petitioner, William L. Elvert, v. The United States of America. Case No. 96-3342, Pending in the US Supreme Court in 1996. [ http://www.apc.net/maross/Cybersex1.htm ] [back]
87. Anderson, Kerby. The Pornographic Plague. Probe Ministries. Supra, see note 4. [back]
88. “Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway: A Survey of 917,410 Images, Description, Short Stories and Animations Downloaded 8.5 Million Times by Consumers in Over 2000 Cities in Forty Countries, Provinces and Territories” by Marty Rimm was published in The Georgetown Law Journal. The research project, and the resulting publications – including the Time Magazine article “On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn” by Philip Elmer-Dewitt, which used the results of Marty Rimm’s research – set off a avalanche of criticism on the manner the study was conducted, the methods used, and the reliability of the data generated. Debunking the results of the Rimm Methodology and the Dewitt article, Donna L. Hoffman and Thomas P. Novak of Vanderbilt University created a comprehensive site, “The Cyberporn Debate” (http://elab.vanderbilt.edu/research/topics/cyberporn/index.htm). Even if the accuracy of the results is questioned, Hoffman and Novak admits still that “pornography exists and is transmitted through many media, including cable television, books and magazines, video tapes, private “adult” bulletin boards, the postal mail, computer networks, interactive media like CDROM, fax, and telephone, to name a few.” [back]
89. Anderson, Kerby. Cyberporn. Retrieved from the website of Probe Ministries. [ http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/cybporn.html ] [back]
90. Ibid. [back]
91. Ibid. [back]
92. Johnson, Jarvis; Quinn Johnson, Danny Page, and Sekou Richen. Cyberporn. Georgia State University College of Law. Citing the The Meese Commission Report, in 1986, provides evidence that pedophile offenders and child pornographers had begun to use personal computers and computer networks for communication and distribution of materials. See Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography: Final Report, 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1986 [The Meese Commission] at page 629. [ http://gsulaw.gsu.edu/lawand/papers/fa01/johnson_johnson_page_richen/ ] [back]
93. Anderson, Kerby. Cyberporn. Probe Ministries. Supra, note 89. [back]
94. Allen, Kenneth. Cyber-Sex: A Review and Implications of the Situation. Notre Dame Seminary. [ http://home.earthlink.net/~philoska/cyber/ ] Citing “Definition of ‘Cyber’,” in Cyber Sex Chat Addicts Anonymous (accessed by said author, 27 November 2001 at [www.cyberaa.com/Definition/definition.html]; no longer available). [back]
95. Allen, Kenneth. Cyber-Sex: A Review and Implications of the Situation. Notre Dame Seminary. [ http://home.earthlink.net/~philoska/cyber/ ] Citing René J. Molencamp, Ph.D, and Luisa M. Saffiotti, Ph.D., “The Cybersexual Addiction,” Human Development, Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 2001 ( Chicago : Jesuit Educational Center for Human Development, 2001) 5-6. [back]
96. Leaño , Peter James V . What’s Happening: UPCIDS-PST conducts Rapid Appraisal of Child Pornography in the Philippines. June 2004. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from Child Protection in the Philippines. [ http://www.childprotection.org.ph/whatshappening/whtbits1_mayjun04%5B1%5D.html ] [back]
97. See the case of United States vs. Stephen A. Knox, decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 92-7089. See FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resources, Forms, and Code. [ http://laws.findlaw.com/3rd/940734p.html ] [back]
98. See the case of Ashcroft, Attorney Gerneral, et. al. vs. Free Speech Coalition. et. al. decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. 535 U.S. 234 (2002) See the Legal Information Institute of the Cornell University Law School, Ashcroft vs. Free Speech Coalition. [ http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-795.ZS.html ] [back]
99. Child erotica is “any material relating to children that serves a sexual purpose for a given individual.” Kenneth V. Lanning, Child Molesters: A Behavioural Analysis 26 (1992). [back]
100. Child Pornography. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_pornography ] [back]
101. Schuijer, Jan and Benjamin Rossen. “The Trade in Child Pornography”. Retrieved 15 January 2005 from IPT Journal, Institute for Psychological Therapies. [ http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume4/j4_2_1.htm ] [back]
102. Pret Art. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pret_art ] [back]
103. Child Pornography: An International Perspective; citing U.S. Senate Report; Kenneth V. Lanning, Child Molesters: A Behavioural Analysis, 10-12. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from Computer Crime Research Center. [ http://www.csecworldcongress.org/PDF/en/Stockholm/Background_reading/Theme_papers/Theme%20paper%20Pornography%201996_EN.pdf ] [back]
104. See the case of Hustler Magazine vs. Falwell, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States (485 U.S. 46). See the Legal Information Institute of the Cornell University Law School, Ashcroft vs. Free Speech Coalition. [ http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0485_0046_ZS.html ] [back]
105. See the case of Pita vs. Court of Appeals. Supra, note 9. [back]
106. Child Pornography. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Supra, note 100. [back]
107. Section 3(e) of RA 9208. Supra, note 3. [back]
108. Sex Tourism. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_tourism ] [back]
109. Section 3(f), RA 9208. Supra, see note 3. [back]
110. Sexual Abuse. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse ] [back]
111. Pedophilia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia ] [back]
112. Infantophilia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantophilia ] [back]
113. Carvajal, Nancy. 19 girls rescued from cyber exploitation. 22 January 2005. INQ7.net News. [ http://news.inq7.net/metro/index.php?index=1&story_id=25123 ] [back]
114. Perez, Maria Patricia Anne L., NBI raids suspected internet porn operators. 20 May 2003. i.t. matters. [ http://itmatters.com.ph/news/news_05202003h.html ] [back]
115. Oliva, Erwin Lemuel. Senator to push for stiffer penalties on child porn on Net. 6 February 2005. INQ7.net. [ http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=26636 ] [back]
116. Perez, Maria Patricia Anne L., NBI raids suspected internet porn operators. Supra, see note 114. [back]
117. No law vs cybersex, PNP laments. 28 January 2005. Asian Journal Online [ http://www.asianjournal.com/cgi-bin/view_info.cgi?code=00009164&category=TN ] [back]
118. Erediano, Arnold. Cybersex dens: Now showing nationwide. 3 February 2005. People’s Tonight. [ http://www.journal.com.ph/news.asp?pid=1&sid=1&nid=20464&month=2&day=3&year=2005 ] [back]
119. Perez, Maria Patricia Anne L., NBI raids suspected internet porn operators. Supra, see note 114. Also, Cybersex ladies get P1M a month. 23 January 2005. Manila Headlines. [ http://manilaheadline.net/News/01-05/23/cybersex_ladies_get_p1m_a_month.htm ] [back]
120. 20 more fall in drive against cybersex in Angeles. 10 November 2004. ABS-CBN-News. [ http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=Provincial&oid=63169 ] [back]
121. No law vs cybersex, PNP laments. 28 January 2005. Asian Journal Online. [ http://www.asianjournal.com/cgi-bin/view_info.cgi?code=00009164&category=TN ] [back]
122. 20 more fall in drive against cybersex in Angeles. Supra, see Note 120. Also Navarro, Chris. “Cops arrest 20 in ‘cybersex’ den raid”. 10 November 2004. Sun Star Network Online [ http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/net/2004/11/10/cops.arrest.20.in.cybersex.den.raid.html ] [back]
123. Cybersex a billion-dollar industry, says Madrigal. 17 January 2005. Prov’l Gov’t of LA UNION Forums citing an undated Philippine Star article. [ http://members.lycos.co.uk/launiongov/viewthread.php?tid=25 ] Also Cybersex girls come in the open. 28 January 2005. Manila Headlines. [ http://manilaheadline.net/News/01-05/28/cybersex_girls_come_in_the_open.htm ] [back]
124. Africa, Raymond. Cybersex shop raided. 23 January 2004. Malaya- The National Newspaper. [ http://www.malaya.com.ph/jan23/metro4.htm ] Also Carvajal, Nancy. 19 girls rescued from cyber exploitation. Supra, note 113. [back]
125. Cybersex ladies get P1M a month. Supra, see Note 119. Also, Cyber sex den raided in Manila. 23 January 2005. Manila Headlines [ http://manilaheadline.net/News/01-05/22/cyber_sex_den_raided_in_manila.htm ] [back]
126. Cybersex girls come from rich families. 24 January 2005. Manila Headlines [ http://manilaheadline.net/News/01-05/24/cybersex_girls_come_from_rich_fa.htm ] [back]
127. Erediano, Arnold. Cybersex dens: Now showing nationwide. Supra, see Note 118. [back]
128. The original article includes samples of Cybersex (pre-explicit) screenshots. [back]
129. Sex Scandal. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 13 February 2005 from Wikipedia. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_scandal ] [back]
130. Daily Star People and Events. 2003: Sex, bikini scandals rock NegOr. 6 January 2004. The Visayan Daily Star, Electronic edition. [ http://www.visayandailystar.com/2004/January/06/people.htm ] [back]
131. FHM, August 2004 issue. Also Greenarcher.net Forums – DLSU Sex Scandal. [ http://greenarcher.yehey.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-10736 ] [back]
132. FHM, August 2004 issue. [back]
133. Ibid. [back]
134. Belen, Crispin. Celebrity World: Ethel Booba’s sex video controversy rages on. The Manila Bulletin Online. [ http://www.mb.com.ph/ENTR2005021528791.html ] [back]
135. Child porn in RP a US$1-B business: senator. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from SunStar Network Online. [ http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/net/2005/01/20/child.porn.in.rp.a.us$1.b.business.senator.html ] [back]
136. The case United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc., 513 U. S. 64 (1994), involving the underage American porn actress Traci Elizabeth Lords (real name is Nora Louise Kuzma) provides an illustration. The full text of the US Supreme Court Decision may be found, among others, at FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resources, Forms, and Code. [ http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=000&invol=u10337 ] [back]
137. UNICEF condemns child pornography in the Philippines. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). [ http://www.unicef.org/philippines/archives/october_04/news/news_2.html ] [back]
138. Philippines. The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from Humboldt-Universität of Berlin. [ http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/IES/philippines.html ] [back]
139. Family and friends push children into prostitution. 11 November 2004. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from AsiaNews (Italy). [ http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1884 ] [back]
140. Leaño , Peter James V . What’s Happening: UPCIDS-PST conducts Rapid Appraisal of Child Pornography in the Philippines. June 2004. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from Child Protection in the Philippines. [ http://www.childprotection.org.ph/whatshappening/whtbits1_mayjun04%5B1%5D.html ] [back]
141. Oliva, Erwin Lemuel G., “Law vs online child porn to be lobbied anew—sources”. 6 July 2004. Retrieved 8 January 2004 from the Philippine Inquirer (INQ7.net). [ http://www.inq7.net/inf/2004/jul/07/inf_1-1.htm ] [back]
142. Cullen, Fr. Shay, SSC. Reflections: Pornography the Root of Sexual Violence. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from People’s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. [ http://www.preda.org/archives/1993-94-95-96/r9501221.htm ] . The article was first printed 22 January 1995 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. [back]
143. Child Sex Tourism Charges. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from the “End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT)” website. [ http://www.ecpat.org/prosecutions.html ] [back]
144. Davies, Nick and Jeevan Vasagar. Global child porn ring broken; Britons face jail after raids on internet paedophiles. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from Guardian Unlimited, Archive search. [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4115701,00.html ] [back]
145. Child Sex Tourism Charges. ECPAT. Supra, see note 143. [back]
146. News Release. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from the United States Department of Justice. [ http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/Press%20Releases/RussellPR.pdf ] [back]
147. SOC-UM – 2003 Updates. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from SOC-UM (Save Our Children).org [ http://www.soc-um.org/updates/updates16.html ] [back]
148. ICE Fact Sheet - Child Sex Tourists. Retrieved 24 January 2005 from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the US Department of Homeland Security. [ http://www.ice.gov/graphics/news/factsheets/sextourists.htm ] [back]
149. Child Sex Tourism Charges. ECPAT. Supra, See Note 143. [back]
150. ICE Fact Sheet - Child Sex Tourists. Supra, see Note 148. [back]
151. Recent News. Child Lust Recovery.org: Recovery from Child Pornography Use. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from The Institute for Dynamic Living, Inc. [ http://www.childlustrecovery.org/index.html ] [back]
152. Women – 22 September 2004 journal. Retrieved 28 December 2004 from the Senate of the Philippines. [ http://www.senate.gov.ph/committee/spot_report/Women%20%20September%2022,%202004%20journal.pdf ] [back]
153. Oliva, Erwin Lemuel. Senator to push for stiffer penalties on child porn on Net. Supra, note 115. [back]
154. Article 201, Revised Penal Code, as amended by Presidential Decrees Nos. 960 and 969. [back]
155. Arresto mayor has the duration of one month and one day to 6 months (Paragraph 5, Article 27, Revised Penal Code of the Philippines). [back]
156. Arresto menor has the duration of one day to thirty days (Paragraph 6, Article 27, Revised Penal Code of the Philippines). [back]
157. Prision correccional has the duration of six months and one day to six years (Paragraph 4, Article 27, Revised Penal Code of the Philippines) [back]
158. Article 341, Revised Penal Code, as amended by Batas Pambansa Blg. 186. [back]
159. Article 340, Revised Penal Code, as amended by Batas Pambansa Blg. 92. [back]
160. Section 3(a), RA 9208. Supra, see note 3. [back]
161. Section 10 (a) of Republic Act 9208. Ibid., see Note 3. [back]
162. Section 10 (b) of Republic Act 9208. Ibid., see Note 3. [back]
163. Section 10 (c) of Republic Act 9208. Supra., see Note 3. [back]
164. Section 10 (d) of Republic Act 9208. Supra., see Note 3. [back]
165. Section 10 (e) of Republic Act 9208. Supra., see Note 3. [back]
166. Section 10 (f) of Republic Act 9208. Supra., see Note 3. [back]
167. Section 10 (g) of Republic Act 9208. Supra., see Note 3. [back]
168. Section 10 (h) of Republic Act 9208. Supra., see Note 3. [back]
169. Section 11 of Republic Act 9208. Supra., see Note 3. [back]
170. Republic Act 7610 is entitled :An Act for Stronger Deterrents and Special Protection against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination, Providing Penalties for its violation and for Other Purposes.” See the Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence Databank - The Lawphil Project. [back]
171. Libel is defined by Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code as “a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.” [back]
172. See Rules on Electronic Evidence (A.M. No. 01-7-01-SC), See the Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence Databank - The Lawphil Project. [back]
173. Republic Act No. 8792 is entitled “An Act Providing and Use of Electronic Commercial and Non-Commercial Transactions, Penalties for Unlawful Use Thereof, and other purposes.” See the Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence Databank - The Lawphil Project. [back]
174. Rules of Electronic Evidence. Supra, see Note 172. [back]
175. Soriano, Jaime N. “The Philippine Rules on Electronic Evidence: An Outline.” The Philippine Quarterly IT Law Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, p. 7. [back]
176. Re: Expansion of the Coverage of the Rules on Electronic Evidence. Retrieved 20 February 2005 from Disini and Disini. [back]
177. Binary. Supra, see Note 22. [back]
178. ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), generally pronounced ass-key, is “a character set and a character encoding based on the Roman alphabet as used in modern English and other Western European languages. It is most commonly used by computers and other communication equipment to represent text and by control devices that work with text. The printable characters in the correct order are !”#$%&’()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_’abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~ with a blank space in front.” (ASCII. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 February 2005 from Wikipedia. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII>) [back]
179. Guerrero, Michael Vernon M., “’Hacking’ the Mercantile Law Bar Exam Questions.” The Philippine Quarterly IT Law Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, p. 1. [back]
180. See the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. [back]
181. See the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. [back]
182. Perez, Maria Patricia Anne. US plans to setup a computer crime Unit in RP. 10 June 2003 i.t. matters. [back]

183. Various House Bills have been submitted, currently pending, and aimed to provide necessary legislation relevant to pornography, which may well include child pornography 1:

     * HB01278 (An Act Prohibiting the Publication, Sale or Distribution, Production, Importation and Exhibition of Obscene and Pornographic Materials and the Demonstation, Performance or Exhibition in Public Indecent and Sexual Acts and Providing Penalties for violation thereof) was filed 8 July 2004 by Congressman Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva, which declares that “it a State policy to safeguard the morality of society, particularly the youth and women, against the eroding influence of immoral doctrines, obscene and pornographic publications and indecent shows. It seeks to prohibit the public demonstration of sexual acts, the distribution, sale and production of pornographic materials and provides penalties for violations.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Public Information since 2 February 2005.

     * HB02031 (An Act Prohibiting the Publication, Sale, Distribution, Importation and Exhibition of Obscene and Pornographic Materials and the Performance or Exhibition of Indecent Acts in Public and Providing Penalties for violation thereof) was filed 10 August 2004 by Congresswoman Eileen Ermita-Buhain, aiming to prohibit “the following acts: a) the publication, sale, distribution and importation of obscene and pornographic materials; b) the portrayal, depiction, performance and exhibition of any indecent act in public; and c) the coercion of another person to listen, read or view obscene and pornographic materials in public places.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Public Information since 1 February 2005.

     * HB02887 (An Act Prohibiting and Penalizing the Production, Printing, Publication, Importation, Sale, Distribution and Exhibition of Obscene and Pornographic Movies and Materials, and the Exhibition of Live Sexual Acts, amending for the purpose Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code) was filed 20 September 2004 by Congressman Bienvenido M. Abante Jr., aiming to penalize “the following acts: a) the production, importation, distribution, showing and sale of obscene or pornographic movies; b) the printing, publication, importation, sale or distribution of any magazine or comic book containing obscene or pornographic materials; c) the writing of obscene or pornographic articles; and d) the performance of live sex acts for public viewing.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Public Information since 2 February 2005.

     Various House Bills have been submitted, currently pending, and aimed to provide necessary legislation relevant to cybercrimes, which may well include electronically transmitted child pornography 2:
     * HB00337 (An Act Preventing and Penalizing Computer-Related Crimes, further amending for the purpose Certain Provisions of Act No. 3815, as amended, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code) was filed on 1 July 2004 by Congresswoman Imee R. Marcos, on the premise that “The proliferation of advanced and state-of-the art technologies necessitates the enactment of laws to regulate human conduct in this fast changing world. The bill seeks to supplement and update the Revised Penal Code (RPC) to cover computer-related offenses which are not much different from crimes classifically punished under the RPC.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Revision of Laws since 27 July 2004.

     * HB01246 (An Act Preventing and Penalizing Computer Fraud, Abuses and other Cyber-Related Fraudulent Activities, and creating for the purpose the Cyber-Crime Investigation and Coordinating Center, Prescribing its Powers and Functions, and appropriating funds therefor) was filed on 7 July 2004 by Congressman Eric D. Singson, on the premise that “The bill seeks to protect and safeguard the integrity of computers, computer systems, computer networks, computer servers, database, and information and data stores from computer users who resort to computer fraud, abuses and other cyber-related fraudulent activities, by providing penal sanctions to the perpetrators. It creates a coordinating body, the Cyber-Crime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), which shall coordinate, collate and synergize efforts of all law enforcement agencies in combating cyber crimes.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Information Communications Technology since 12 January 2005.

     [back]
184. Senators alarmed by cybersex business. 25 January 2005. Manila Headlines. [back]
185. City to bring to Congress concerns on hidden cams. 11 November 2003. SunStar Bacolod. [back]
186. The original article includes sample screen shots of pre-explicit materials from various websites featuring Filipina teens. [back]
187. In the United States, the receipt, distribution, or possession of child pornography, which includes the downloading of child pornography from the Internet, is a violation of Title 18, US Code, Section 2252. Persons convicted of child pornography offenses face criminal penalties of up to 15 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. ICE Arrests Campus Minister on Child Pornography Violations. Retrieved 8 January 2005 from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website. The US Code Title on Obscenity may be found at US Code Collection of the Legal Information Institute of the Cornell University Law School. [back]

188. Present efforts to curb Child Pornography, including proposed legislation in Congress, include:

     A. Organizational
     * The Program on Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Center for Integrative and Development Studies of the University of the Philippines (UPCIDS-PST) began the Rapid Appraisal of Child Pornography in the Philippines, the purpose of which was to give a comprehensive appraisal of the issue of child pornography in the Philippines. It aimed to consolidate literature that has been written on the issue; investigate how the internet and globalization aid in perpetuating this, and conduct interviews and focus group discussions with key informants from government and non-government organizations, the media, electronic commerce practitioners, and actual victims of child pornography. Participating organizations, forming the steering committee for the Child Protection in the Philippines (Philippine Resource Network), include The Advisory Board Foundation, Arci Cultura e Sviluppo, Ateneo Human Rights Center-Adhikain Para Sa Karapatang Pambata, Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse (http://www.cptcsa.org/), Council for the Welfare of Children, Department of Social Welfare and Development (http://www.dswd.gov.ph/), ECPAT-Philippines, Child Protection Unit (http://www.childprotection.org.ph/), Save the Children (UK) Philippines (www.oneworld.org/scf), UNICEF-Manila (www.unicef.org/philippines), and the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies-Psychosocial Trauma & Human Rights Program.

     * The Philippine Senate Committee on Youth, Women and Family Relations has provided a spot report on 22 September 2004 pertaining to the issue of Child Pornography and Pedophilia. As an abstract, the report provides “Child Pornography and Pedophilia is long overdue, and although there are already laws to address the same, such as R.A. 7610- Law Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination; R.A. 9208 - Anti Trafficking in Persons Act ; and R.A. 9231 – Elimination of All Forms of Child Labor.”

     B. Legislation

     * Various House Bills have been submitted, currently pending, and aimed to amend certain provisions of Republic Act 7610, or the Special Protection of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act 3 :

     * HB00371 (An Act Amending Republic Act No. 7610 otherwise known as the Special Protection of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, and for other purposes) was filed on 1 July 2004 by Congressman Roseller Barinaga, on the premise that “the cases of child rape and sexual molestation remain unabated despite the enactment of RA 7610. The manner in which government agencies and law enforcement officers handle these cases are outrageous. To correct the situation, the bill seeks to amend RA 7610, as follows: a) cause a mandatory hold departure order for these accused on cases involving children below 12 years old; and b)make law enforcers and government officials criminally culpable for willfully abetting these crimes or causing or assisting in the plight of the accused.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Social Services since 27 July 2004.

     * HB01296 (An Act amending Republic Act No. 7610 otherwise known as ‘The Special Protection of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act’, and for other purposes) was filed on 8 July 2004 by Congresswoman Darlene Magnolia R. Antonino-Custodio, on the premise that “This bill enumerates additional remedial measures to correct the deplorable manner by which local government and law enforcement officials, as well as members of the justice sector, handle cases of child rape and sexual molestations and child prostitution involving minors below the age of twelve (12). It provides for the issuance of an automatic hold order for those accused to prevent them from fleeing abroad. Furthermore, it imposes the maximum penalty on law enforcers and members of the Judiciary Department found guilty including willfully abetting these crimes or causing or assisting in the plight of those accused.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Social Services since 2 August 2004.

     * HB01961 (An Act seeking to Improve Child Protection against Abuse, Exploitation And Discrimination, amending for the purpose Republic Act No. 7610, as amended by Republic Act No. 7658, otherwise known as the “Special Protection And Discrimination Act”, appropriating Funds therefor and for other purposes) was filed on 30 July 2004 by Congressman Robert Ace S. Barbers, on the premise that “The bill bans and penalizes the employment of children in all forms of hazardous occupations and aims for “greater participation of local social workers and law enforcers.” Imposes penalties for child pornography through the internet. Mandates the creation of a central data bank to monitor abuses made by foreigners against children and prevent their reentry.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Social Services since 9 August 2004.

     * HB00731 (An Act Increasing the Penalties for Child Abuse and Exploitation, thereby declaring it as Heinous Crime, amending for the purpose Republic Act No. 7160 as amended, otherwise known as The “Special Protection Of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act”, and for other purposes) was filed on 1 July 2004 by Congresswoman Judy Syjuco, on the premise that “The bill seeks to impose the penalty of reclusion perpetua TO DEATH for the crimes of child trafficking and child prostitution.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Revision of Laws since 28 July 2004.

     * HB03468 (An Act amending Republic Act No. 7610, as amended, otherwise known as The Special Protection of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination) was filed on 8 December 2004 by Congresswoman Imee R. Marcos, on the premise that “The bill imposes the penalties of reclusion temporal in its medium term to reclusion perpetua for acts that are either preparatory to or per se amounts to child pornography and prostitution.” It is currently pending with the Committee on Social Services since 14 December 2004.

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Facts: In July 1974, BIR Examiner Ben Garcia examined the income tax returns filed by Quirico P. Ungab for the calendar year ending 31 December 1973. In the course of his examination, the examiner discovered that Ungab failed to report his income derived from sales of banana saplings.  As a result, the BIR District Revenue Officer at Davao City sent Ungab a “Notice of Taxpayer” informing him that there is due from him the amount of P104,980.81, representing income, business tax and forest charges for the year 1973 and inviting Ungab to an informal conference where Ungab, duly assisted by counsel, may present his objections to the findings of the BIR Examiner. Upon receipt of the notice, Ungab wrote the BIR District Revenue Officer protesting the assessment, claiming that he was only a dealer or agent on commission basis in the banana sapling business and that his income, as reported in his income tax returns for the said year, was accurately stated. The examiner, however, was fully convinced that Ungab had filed a fraudulent income tax return so that he submitted a “Fraud Referral Report,” to the Tax Fraud Unit of the BIR. After examining the records of the case, the Special Investigation Division of the BIR found sufficient proof that Ungab is guilty of tax evasion for the taxable year 1973 and recommended his prosecution. In a second indorsement to the Chief of the Prosecution Division, dated 12 December 1974, the Commissioner approved Ungab’s prosecution.

The State Prosecutor Jesus Acebes, who had been designated to assist all Provincial and City Fiscals throughout the Philippines in the investigation and prosecution, if the evidence warrants, of all violations of the NIRC, as amended, and other related laws, in Administrative Order 116 dated 5 December 1974, and to whom the case was assigned, conducted a preliminary investigation of the case, and finding probable cause, filed 6 informations against Ungab with the CFI Davao City. On 16 September 1975, Ungab filed a motion to quash the informations upon the grounds that: (1) the informations are null and void for want of authority on the part of the State Prosecutor to initiate and prosecute the said cases; and (2) the trial court has no jurisdiction to take cognizance of the above-entitled cases in view of his pending protest against the assessment made by the BIR Examiner. However, the trial court denied the motion on 22 October 1975.

Ungab filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition with preliminary injunction and restraining order to annul and set aside the informations filed in Criminal Cases 1960 to 1965 of the CFI Davao. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, and set aside the temporary restraining order issued; with costs against Ungab.

1.    Ruling in Estrella vs. Orendain
“Under Sections 1679 and 1686 of the Revised Administrative Code, in any instance where a provincial or city fiscal fails, refuses or is unable, for any reason, to investigate or prosecute a case and, in the opinion of the Secretary of Justice it is advisable in the public interest to take a different course of action, the Secretary of Justice may either appoint as acting provincial or city fiscal, to handle the investigation or prosecution exclusively and only of such case, any practicing attorney or some competent officer of the Department of Justice or office of any city or provincial fiscal, with complete authority to act therein in all respects as if he were the provincial or city fiscal himself, or appoint any lawyer in the government service, temporarily to assist such city of provincial fiscal in the discharge of his duties, with the same complete authority to act in dependently of and for such city or provincial fiscal, provided that no such appointment may be made without first hearing the fiscal concerned and never after the corresponding information has already been filed with the court by the corresponding city or provincial fiscal without the conformity of the latter, except when it can be patently shown to the court having cognizance of the case that said fiscal is intent on prejudicing the interests of justice. The same sphere of authority is true with the prosecutor directed and authorized under Section 3 of Republic Act 3783, as amended and/or inserted by Republic Act 5184. “

2.    Rule established in Estrella vs. Orendain not violated when State Prosecutor conducted investigation in the 6 cases against Ungab
The rule established in Estrella vs. Orendain had not been violated. The State Prosecutor, although believing that he can proceed independently of the City Fiscal in the investigation and prosecution of these cases, first sought permission from the City Fiscal of Davao City before he started the preliminary investigation of these cases, and the City Fiscal, after being shown Administrative Order 116, dated 5 December 1974, designating the said State Prosecutor to assist all Provincial and City fiscals throughout the Philippines in the investigation and prosecution of all violations of the NIRC, as amended, and other related laws, graciously allowed the State Prosecutor to conduct the investigation of said cases, and in fact, said investigation was conducted in the office of the City Fiscal.

3.    Filing of informations not premature
What is involved herein is not the collection of taxes where the assessment of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue may be reviewed by the Court of Tax Appeals, but a criminal prosecution for violations of the NIRC which is within the cognizance of courts of first instance. While there can be no civil action to enforce collection before the assessment procedures provided in the Code have been followed, there is no requirement for the precise computation and assessment of the tax before there can be a criminal prosecution under the Code.

4.    Assessment of deficiency tax not necessarily before criminal prosecution   
An assessment of the deficiency tax due is not necessary before the taxpayer can be prosecuted criminally for the charges preferred. The crime is complete when the violator has, as in this case, knowingly and willfully filed fraudulent returns with intent to evade and defeat a part or all of the tax. An assessment of a deficiency is not necessary to a criminal prosecution for willful attempt to defeat and evade the income tax. A crime is complete when the violator has knowingly and willfully filed a fraudulent return with intent to evade and defeat the tax. The perpetration of the crime is grounded upon knowledge on the part of the taxpayer that he has made an inaccurate return, and the government’s failure to discover the error and promptly to assess has no connections with the commission of the crime.

5.    Petition for reconsideration does not suspend prescriptive period of a criminal action for violation of law
A petition for reconsideration of an assessment may affect the suspension of the prescriptive period for the collection of taxes, but not the prescriptive period of a criminal action for violation of law. The protest of the taxpayer against the assessment of the District Revenue Officer cannot stop his prosecution for violation of the NIRC.

Facts: The Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom), a commercial banking corporation duly organized under Philippine laws, filed its quarterly income tax returns for the first and second quarters of 1985, reported profits, and paid the total income tax of P5,016,954.00. The taxes due were settled by applying PBCom’s tax credit memos and accordingly, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued Tax Debit Memo 0746-85 and 0747-85 for P3,401,701.00 and P1,615,253.00, respectively. Subsequently, however, PBCom suffered losses so that when it filed its Annual Income Tax Returns for the year-ended 31 December 1985, it declared a net loss of P25,317,228.00, thereby showing no income tax liability. For the succeeding year, ending 31 December 31, 1986, PBCom likewise reported a net loss of P14,129,602.00, and thus declared no tax payable for the year. But during these two years, PBCom earned rental income from leased properties. The lessees withheld and remitted to the BIR withholding creditable taxes of P282,795.50 in 1985 and P234,077.69 in 1986. On 7 August 1987, PBCom requested the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, among others, for a tax credit of P5,016,954.00 representing the overpayment of taxes in the first and second quarters of 1985. Thereafter, on 25 July 1988, PBCom filed a claim for refund of creditable taxes withheld by their lessees from property rentals in 1985 for P282,795.50 and in 1986 for P234,077.69.

Pending the investigation of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, PBCom instituted a Petition for Review on 18 November 1988 before the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA).  On 20 May 1993, the CTA dismissed the petition for lack of merit; and thus denied PBCom’s claim for refund/tax credit of overpaid income tax for 1985 in the amount of P5,299,749.95 for having been filed beyond the reglementary period, and likewise denied the 1986 claim for refund amounting to P234,077.69 since PBCom has opted and automatically credited the same to the succeeding year.  On 22 June 1993, PBCom filed a Motion for Reconsideration of the CTA’s decision but the same was denied due course for lack of merit.

PBCom filed a petition for review of CTA decision and resolution with the Court of Appeals. On 22 September 1993, the Court of Appeals affirmed in toto the CTA’s resolution dated 20 July 1993. Hence the petition for review with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied the petition and affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals appealed from, with costs against PBCom.

1.    Purpose of taxes, due process of law, and claims for refund or tax credit
Basic is the principle that “taxes are the lifeblood of the nation.” The primary purpose is to generate funds for the State to finance the needs of the citizenry and to advance the common weal. Due process of law under the Constitution does not require judicial proceedings in tax cases. This must necessarily be so because it is upon taxation that the government chiefly relies to obtain the means to carry on its operations and it is of utmost importance that the modes adopted to enforce the collection of taxes levied should be summary and interfered with as little as possible.  From the same perspective, claims for refund or tax credit should be exercised within the time fixed by law because the BIR being an administrative body enforced to collect taxes, its functions should not be unduly delayed or hampered by incidental matters.

2.    Section 230 NIRC (1977)
Section 230 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1977 (now Sec. 229, NIRC of 1997) provides for the prescriptive period for filing a court proceeding for the recovery of tax erroneously or illegally collected. Section 230 (Recovery of tax erroneously or illegally collected) provides that “no suit or proceeding shall be maintained in any court for the recovery of any national internal revenue tax hereafter alleged to have been erroneously or illegally assessed or collected, or of any penalty claimed to have been collected without authority, or of any sum alleged to have been excessive or in any manner wrongfully collected, until a claim for refund or credit has been duly filed with the Commissioner; but such suit or proceeding may be maintained, whether or not such tax, penalty, or sum has been paid under protest or duress. In any case, no such suit or proceeding shall be begun after the expiration of two years from the date of payment of the tax or penalty regardless of any supervening cause that may arise after payment; Provided however, That the Commissioner may, even without a written claim therefor, refund or credit any tax, where on the face of the return upon which payment was made, such payment appears clearly to have been erroneously paid.”

3.    Reckoning period for claim of refund or credit
The rule states that the taxpayer may file a claim for refund or credit with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, within two (2) years after payment of tax, before any suit in CTA is commenced. The two-year prescriptive period provided, should be computed from the time of filing the Adjustment Return and final payment of the tax for the year.

4.    Application of Section 230 of 1977 NIRC; CIR vs. Phil-Am Life Insurance Co. and CIR vs. TMX Sales
In Commissioner of Internal Revenue vs. Philippine American Life Insurance Co., the Supreme Court explained the application of Section 230 of 1977 NIRC. Therein, the Court stated that the prescriptive period of two years should commence to run only from the time that the refund is ascertained, which can only be determined after a final adjustment return is accomplished. As earlier said in the TMX Sales case, Sections 68, 16 69, 17 and 70 18 on Quarterly Corporate Income Tax Payment and Section 321 should be considered in conjunction with it.

5.    RMC 7-85 invalid
When the Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue issued RMC 7-85, changing the prescriptive period of two years to ten years on claims of excess quarterly income tax payments, such circular created a clear inconsistency with the provision of Section 230 of 1977 NIRC. In so doing, the BIR did not simply interpret the law; rather it legislated guidelines contrary to the statute passed by Congress.

6.    Nature of Revenue memorandum-circulars
It bears repeating that Revenue memorandum-circulars are considered administrative rulings (in the sense of more specific and less general interpretations of tax laws) which are issued from time to time by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

7.    Interpretation by executive officers entitled to great respect but not conclusive
It is widely accepted that the interpretation placed upon a statute by the executive officers, whose duty is to enforce it, is entitled to great respect by the courts. Nevertheless, such interpretation is not conclusive and will be ignored if judicially found to be erroneous. Thus, courts will not countenance administrative issuances that override, instead of remaining consistent and in harmony with, the law they seek to apply and implement. As held in the case of People vs. Lim, the rules and regulations issued by administrative officials to implement a law cannot go beyond the terms and provisions of the latter.

8.    Memorandum-circular does not shield taxpayer from judicial action
Fundamental is the rule that the State cannot be put in estoppel by the mistakes or errors of its officials or agents. Article 8 of the Civil Code recognizes judicial decisions, applying or interpreting statutes as part of the legal system of the country. But administrative decisions do not enjoy that level of recognition. A memorandum-circular of a bureau head could not operate to vest a taxpayer with a shield against judicial action. For there are no vested rights to speak of respecting a wrong construction of the law by the administrative officials and such wrong interpretation could not place the Government in estoppel to correct or overrule the same. The non-retroactivity of rulings by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue is not applicable because the nullity of RMC 7-85 was declared by the courts and not by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Lastly, it must be noted that a claim for refund is in the nature of a claim for exemption and should be construed in strictissimi juris against the taxpayer.

9.    Section 69 of the 1977 NIRC; Availment of the exclusive relief of refund or automatic tax credit
Section 69 of the 1977 NIRC (now Section 76 of the 1997 NIRC) provides that any excess of the total quarterly payments over the actual income tax computed in the adjustment or final corporate income tax return, shall either (a) be refunded to the corporation, or (b) may be credited against the estimated quarterly income tax liabilities for the quarters of the succeeding taxable year. The corporation must signify in its annual corporate adjustment return (by marking the option box provided in the BIR form) its intention, whether to request for a refund or claim for an automatic tax credit for the succeeding taxable year. To ease the administration of tax collection, these remedies are in the alternative, and the choice of one precludes the other.

10.    PBCom opted to apply for automatic tax credit
PBCom opted to apply for automatic tax credit. This was the basis used (vis-a-vis the fact that the 1987 annual corporate tax return was not offered by the petitioner as evidence) by the CTA in concluding that PBCom had indeed availed of and applied the automatic tax credit to the succeeding year, hence it can no longer ask for refund, as to [sic] the two remedies of refund and tax credit are alternative.  Since PBCom opted for an automatic tax credit in accordance with Section 69 of the 1977 NIRC, as specified in its 1986 Final Adjusted Income Tax Return, such a finding of fact must be respected by the Supreme Court. This, especially, in light that the 1987 annual corporate tax return of PBCom was not offered as evidence to controvert said fact.

Facts: An assessment in the sum of P1,181.33 and P2,616.10 representing estate and inheritance taxes on 50 shares of stock of Edward J. Nell Company issued in the names of both spouses “as joint tenants with full rights of survivorship and not as tenants in common” was made by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue on the ground that there was a transmission to the husband of one-half share thereof upon the death of the wife, the above shares being conjugal property. Jose Concepcion, as ancillary administrator of the estate of Mary H. Mitchell-Roberts, and Jack F. Mitchell-Roberts, husband of the deceased, opposed and maintained that there was no transmission of property since under English law, ownership of all property acquired during the marriage vests in the husband, and that the shares of stock were issued to the spouses “as joint tenants with full rights of survivorship and not as tenants in common. Not being agreeable to the theory entertained by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Concepcion and Mitchell-Roberts, in CTA Case 168, appealed such a decision under RA 1125. The Court of Tax Appeals, however and on 29 April 1957, dismissed such an appeal as the petition for review because it was filed beyond the reglementary period of 30 days. That decision became final.

On 14 June 1957, Concepcion and Mitchell-Roberts paid the taxes in question amounting to P1,181.33 (as estate tax) and P2,616.10 (as inheritance tax), inclusive of delinquency penalties, and at the same time filed a claim for the refund of said amounts. Without waiting for the decision of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue on the claim for refund, Concepcion and Mitchell-Roberts instituted an appeal with the Court of Tax Appeals on 11 June 1959 in order to avoid the prescriptive period of two years provided for in Section 306 of the Revenue Code. The Court of Tax Appeals ordered the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to refund the inheritance and estate taxes paid in the amount of P3,797.43. The Commissioner filed a petition for review with the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Court of Tax Appeals under review; with costs against Concepcion and Mitchell-Roberts.

1.    Reliance on La Paz y Buen Viaje Cigar & Cigarette Factory misplaced
The very same day the decision in La Paz y Buen Viaje Cigar & Cigarette Factory was affirmed, the opinion in Republic of the Philippines v. Lopez  was handed down. The case of Republic vs. Lopez was an appeal by the Republic from an order of the CFI Baguio dismissing its complaint for collection of a deficiency income tax against Lopez on the ground that the action had prescribed. After noting that prescription as a defense did not lie, the Supreme Court statedthat another ground for reversing the dismissal of the complaint is that the proper remedy of the taxpayer against the assessment complained of was to appeal the ruling of the Collector to the Court of Tax Appeals.

2.    Effects of finality of assessment; Republic vs. Lim Tian Teng Sons & Co, Morales vs. Collector of Internal Revenue
The taxpayer’s failure to appeal to the Court of Tax Appeals in due time made the assessment in question final, executory and demandable. A subsequent action to enforce the deficiency assessment was already barred from disputing the correctness of the assessment or invoking any defense that would reopen the question of his tax liability on the merits. Thus, once the matter has reached the stage of finality in view of the failure to appeal, it could no longer be reopened through the expedient of an appeal from the denial of the taxpayer’s request for cancellation of the warrant of distraint and levy.

3.    Procedure in Section 306 NIRC not available to revive right to contest validity of assessment when appeal not taken
In the same way that the expedient of an appeal from a denial of a tax request for cancellation of warrant of distraint and levy cannot be utilized for the purpose of testing the legality of an assessment, which had become conclusive and binding on the taxpayer, there being no appeal, the procedure set forth in Section 306 of the National Internal Revenue Code is not available to revive the right to contest the validity of an assessment once the same had been irretrievably lost not only by the failure to appeal but likewise by the lapse of the reglementary period within which to appeal could have been taken.

4.    Estate administrator and deceased’s husband liable for taxes
The liability of Concepcion as an ancillary administrator of the estate of the deceased wife and of Mitchell-Roberts as the husband for the amount of P1,181.33 as estate tax and P2,616,10 as inheritance tax was beyond question. Having paid the same, they are clearly devoid of any legal right to sue for recovery.

Facts: On 21 February 1956, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cebu, in behalf of the Roman Catholic Church of Cebu, filed an income tax return for 1955, reporting a gross income of P10,356.90 from sales or exchanges of capital assets,  from rentals and royalties, and from dividends received. The Archbishop claimed deductions from depreciation of the Archbishop’s Palace Building, Major Seminary, Minor Seminary, and Furniture and Fixture in the total value of P19,898.09. On 18 February 1957, the Archbishop, in behalf of the Roman Catholic Church in Cebu, filed an income tax return for 1956, showing a gross income of P18,856.42. The Archbishop claimed deductions from depreciation in the total value of P20,226.15. On the theory that the gross incomes in 1955 and 1956 were realized independently of the use of the building, furniture and fixtures, the Collector of Internal Revenue totally disallowed the deductions for depreciation, thereby determining against the Archbishop, on 15 July 1956 and 30 March 1957, income tax liabilities for 1955 and 1956 in the respective amounts of P1,825.00 and P2,493.00. On May 10 and 14, 1957, the Archbishop requested for the reconsideration of the determinations, which requests were denied by the Collector in a letter dated 13 July 1957, wherein he demanded the payment of P1,825.00 and P2,493.00, including 5% surcharge and 1% legal interest on the latter amount. On 28 August 1957, the Archbishop requested for the reconsideration of the denial and the cancellation of the assessments. On 5 November 1957, the Collector denied this request for reconsideration and demanded the payment of P4,318.00, plus delinquency penalties incident to late payment. Again, on 23 November 1957, the Archbishop requested for the reconsideration and cancellation of the assessments, which request was denied on 20 January 1958, with a demand “for the last time to pay the total sum of P4,318.00 plus delinquency penalties incident to late payment immediately upon receipt hereof in order that no drastic action may be taken by this office on the matter.” Meanwhile, on 4 December 4, 1957, the Collector issued a warrant of distraint and levy against the properties of the Roman Catholic Church of D. Jakosalem St., Cebu City, to satisfy the sums of P1,916.25 and P2,617.65 as defficiency income tax and surcharge due for 1955 and 1956. On 7 February 1958, the Archbishop paid under protest the total amount of P5,201.52 as income tax for the years 1955 and 1956, including surcharge and interests.

On 1 February 1958, the Archbishop filed before the Court of Tax Appeals his petition for review. The Tax Court, convinced that the lack of a claim for refund was fatal to the Archbishop’s appeal, dismissed the same for lack of jurisdiction to take cognizance thereof. From this ruling, the Archbishop appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of the Archbishop’s appeal by the Court of Tax Appeals, with costs against the Archbishop.

1.    Section 7 of Republic Act 1125
Section 7 of Republic Act 1125, provides in part that “(1) Decisions of the Collector of Internal Revenue in cases involving disputed assessments, refunds of internal revenue taxes, fees or other charges, penalties imposed in relation thereto, or other matters arising under the National Internal Revenue Code or other law or part of the law administered by the Bureau of Internal Revenue;”

2.    RA 1125 allows appeal from decision of Collector in cases involving “disputed assessments” as distinguished from cases involving “refunds of internal revenue taxes, fees or other charges “
Section 7 of Republic Act No. 1125, creating the Court of Tax Appeals, allows an appeal from a decision of the Collector in cases involving “disputed assessments” as distinguished from cases involving “refunds of internal revenue taxes, fees or other charges.” To hold that the taxpayer has now lost the right to appeal from the ruling on the disputed assessment but must prosecute his appeal under section 306 of the Tax Code, which requires a taxpayer to file a claim for refund of the taxes paid as a condition precedent to his right to appeal, would in effect require of him to go through a useless and needless ceremony that would only delay the disposition of the case, for the Collector (now Commissioner) would certainly disallow the claim for refund in the same way as he disallowed the protest against the assessment. The law should not be interpreted as to result in absurdities.

3.    Dismissal of appeal correct for being filed out of time
The dismissal of the Archbishop’s appeal is substantially correct, for the reason that said appeal was not taken within the 30 day period prescribed by section 11 of Republic Act 1125. The Archbishop has submitted not less than 3 motions or requests for the reconsideration of his Tax Assessments. All motions for reconsideration were premised on the same grounds, deduction of the depreciation of the buildings in question. The appeal to the Tax Court was filed only on 19 February 1958. By these successive motions for reconsideration, the Archbishop managed to delay the review of his case by the Tax Court for nearly two years. Such delays are plainly inimical to the general interest, ascertainment and collection of taxes being essential to the maintenance of the State. The decision by the Collector dated 5 November 1957, denying the second request for reconsideration of the assessment, was certainly reviewable by the Court of Tax Appeals. Hence, the 30-day appeal period should be counted from 21 November 1957, when the taxpayer received copy of the Collector’s ruling. The running of the period was not interrupted by the filing of the third request for reconsideration, because the latter did not advance new grounds not previously alleged, and was, therefore, merely pro forma. Therefore, the Archbishop’s petition for review should have been lodged with the Tax Court not later than 21 December 1957, but it was actually filed only on 1 February 1958.

4.    Doctrine in North Camarines Lumber Co. vs. Collector of Internal Revenue, (109 Phil., 511)
The Supreme Court cannot countenance the theory that would make the commencement of the statutory 30-day period solely dependent on the will of the taxpayer and place the latter in a position to put off indefinitely and at his convenience the finality of a tax assessment. Such an absurd procedure would be detrimental to the interest of the Government, for ‘taxes are the lifeblood of the government, and their prompt and certain availability an imperious need.’ (Bull vs. U. S. 295, U. S. 247).”