Post- event FILCOLS Talk about Copyright at PASAP Meeting

“Today, everyone will realize that copyright is not just a boring term dug up from the field of law.”

That was the premise of the talk of Mr. Alvin Buenaventura, the Executive Director of Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society or FILCOLS. It was held at the Conference Rooms 3 and 4, Social Sciences Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City last 28 February 2011.

The participants were mostly members of the Philippine Association of Scholarly and Academic Publishers or PASAP. Present were representatives from University of the Philippines Press, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, De La Salle University Press, Ateneo de Manila University Press, the host of the event, Far Eastern University, Centro Escolar University, FEATI, New Era University, Phoenix Publishing, Vibal Publishing and many more.

Everyone listened attentively as Buenaventura expounded on how copyright must be perceived as a human right as well. That of the authors’.

After the talk came the questions.

Ms. Elisa Valdez asked if the theses and dissertations are covered by the FILCOLS proposal.

Buenaventura said that all of the educational institutions are encouraged to come up with their own intellectual property policies. These policies must be designed to give protection not just to faculty members’ works but to students’ works as well. Because the students’ works are still copyrighted materials even if the students were guided by their professors till their works were considered done.

Luisa Camagay of UP Press asked about the state of the state universities and colleges and FILCOLS’ licensing agreements.

Buenaventura said that FILCOLS is prioritizing private higher educational institutions. He believes that students from state universities and colleges might just perceive the “blanket fee” as an additional tax and burden in the education sector. More awareness programs will be set up and executed to prepare the students studying in government funded schools.

Kathlin Aspiras inquired about the selling of second hand books.

Buenaventura assured her there is no copyright violation in that practice. Because the book was not transformed into another form. The content and more importantly the same physical (and worn out) form of the book are what’s being sold. Photocopying is a way of reproducing a book or parts of it in another form. Doing that without the permission of copyright holders is clearly a copyright violation.

Jack Wigley shared his worries about all the hassle of securing permission from copyright holders. This practice might discourage text book authors because of the volume of permissions they have to seek and secure in writing text books.

Buenaventura shared what FILCOLS is doing to provide help to some professors from UP Diliman. They want to produce a compilation of photocopied works of 27 different authors for a course. This compilation will be used by about 100 students for the coming semester. The professors also want the students who will photocopy the compilation to pay for the use of these copyrighted materials. The money that will be collected will be distributed among the authors. FILCOLS traces and communicates with the authors. It also serves as the bridge between the authors and the users: professors and students.


After the Q & A portion came a short talk about PASAP and the closing remarks.

Luisa Camagay, the president of PASAP, introduced PASAP to everyone. She invited those who are not yet members to join the association.

Dr. Isagani Cruz, the Chair of FILCOLS and treasurer of PASAP, gave the closing remarks. He emphasized the importance of being a member of an RRO like FILCOLS. He mentioned that FILCOLS will be able to help the publishers of academic and scholarly materials in running after those who pirate their products.

The meeting ended with a salusalo sponsored by Ateneo de Manila University Press.

FILCOLS receives support from the Norwegian Copyright Development Association (NORCODE) and Kopinor. NORCODE is an international copyright development group funded by five copyright societies namely KOPINOR, GRAMO, TONO, BONO and NORWACO. KOPINOR is the reproduction rights (RRO) of Norway while FILCOLS is the RRO of the Philippines.


Written by Beverly Siy. You are welcome to repost or include this in any publication provided that the writer/copyright owner gets credit. Thank you.