MANILA -- Following director Antoinette Jadaone's anger over pirated copies of her movie "The Achy Breaky Hearts" circulating on social media, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Tuesday warned that such acts are illegal and punishable by law.

A photo posted by STAR Cinema (@starcinema) on Jun 29, 2016 at 8:10am PDT

Ronald Aguto, the head of the Cybercimes Division of the NBI, said that unauthorized sharing copyrighted materials on social media is considered part of illegal distribution.

"That's exactly part of distribution. Once you share something that is illegal, you become part of the persons whom we can investigate and charge later on," he said in an phone interview with ANC.

Aguto noted that "sharing" such materials can be punishable by the Intellectual Property Code (RA 9283) and the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (RA 10175).

"The law says unauthorized reproduction and distribution is the one penalized so the mere fact that they uploaded this and distributed this without authorization from the copyright holder is a violation," he added.

He also emphasized that "big penalties" await the perpetrators of the offense.

"There are big penalties in this kind of offense like if they upload it using the ICT (information and communications technology), then they can be punishable one degree higher than what is indicated in the Intellectual Property Rights Code," he said.

According to Aguto, he is currently mobilizing a team to investigate the spread of piracy on social media. He is also urging the public to report piracy by emailing the Cybercrimes Division via ccd@nbi.gov.ph.

Star Cinema, the copyright owner of "The Achy Breaky Hearts," has also launched an email address where netizens can send reports.

A photo posted by STAR CREATIVES (@starcreativestv) on Jul 5, 2016 at 1:51am PDT

On Monday, Jadaone lambasted netizens who uploaded and shared the movie on Facebook, less than a week after it opened in theaters.

NAKAKAGALIT ANG MGA PINOY. Nawalan na ako ng tiwala sa mga Pinoy. Change is coming, pero sarili natin hindi natin mabago.

— Tonette, Tonette (@tonetjadaone) July 4, 2016

(READ: Jadaone cries foul as 'Achy Breaky Hearts' uploaded on social media)