FILCOLS Talks about IP, Social Media, and AI at the 20th
PASADO National Seminar
Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS)
membership officer Regina Reyna “Reg” V. Pastor explained the importance of
copyright at the 20th PASADO National Seminar held at the National
Teachers College, Manila on September 22.
Pastor presented the report prepared by FILCOLS executive
director Alvin J. Buenaventura before Pampelikulang Samahan ng mga Dalubguro
members. This is an organization of teachers and other professionals who advocate for the effective use of film in
teaching and acquiring knowledge.
“Respect for copyright is respect for the human rights of authors,”
Pastor said quoting Buenaventura. We must remember that real people are behind the
texts, images, music, and videos we consume offline and online. Copyright and intellectual
property rights extend even to the internet.
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| Located in Quiapo, Manila, the National Teachers College was established in 1928. Photo by the NTC Career Placement Office. |
Public access is not the same as the public domain. Due to
the developments in technology, the public can access a lot of work online. The
fact that they are publicly available does not mean we can disregard IPRs.
The public domain is a law-created world for works with
expired copyright and those not given copyright protection like government
works. In the Philippines, the duration of copyright is the lifetime of the
author plus 50 years after death. Works in the public domain are free for the
public to use in whatever way they want.
Just because we can access many works online does not mean
these are already part of the public domain. They may be publicly available but
are not necessarily in the public domain. Many of these works are protected by copyright.
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| Reg Pastor before participants at the 20th PASADO National Summit. Photo by Shai Gondra. |
Unless the author expressly indicated that the work may be
used freely, our default assumption is it is under copyright thus we need to
attribute properly and seek permission if we wish to use them, especially for
large-scale uses.
Not everything posted and shared on social media is under
the public domain. The same default assumption should prevail if we want to use
the works of others on a large scale.
The rise of Generative AI
The rise of generative AI like ChatGPT and DALLE means the
creation of works is no longer the sole turf of humans. As of now, humans still
need to use prompts to coax the AI to produce texts, images, music, and videos. But
the exponential speed of development in hardware and software means AI will
eventually do it without human prompts.
As educators, we need to be vigilant and not be afraid to
engage with social media and AI. We need to update a lot of things like the definition
of plagiarism which points to a human source.
The classic definition of plagiarism is passing off another
person’s work as your own. How can we accuse a student of plagiarism if the
work submitted was produced by AI?
We need to update school policies
The student handbook and other school policies need to be
updated in the face of the rapid developments in AI.
There was a time when schools allowed students to have their smartphones inside the classroom. This changed when teachers discovered that students were cheating in their exams using smartphones.
Now all schools ban
the use of smartphones, especially during exams. The same rule is applied to
professional exams like the bar for prospective lawyers.
After the presentation, a number of participants shared
their own experiences both as creators of works and users of the works of
others.
Experts from various universities
With the theme “Rebolusyong Industriyal 4.: Eksplorasyon at
Perspektiba sa Wika, Pelikula, at Panitikan” (Industrial Revolution 4:
Exploration and Perspectives on Language, Film, and Literature), the national
summit brought presenters from other higher education institutions like Sherwin C. Teves, Polytechnic University of the Philippines; Sara Mae S. Robin, Far Eastern University -
Manila; Louise Vincent B. Amante, University of Asia and the Pacific; and Andrea
P. Aligue, Ph.D., Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology.
Award-winning author and ABS-CBN screenwriter Jerry B.
Gracio opened the summit as the first speaker. He discussed his experiences in
crafting teleseryes (TV series) for the largest network in the country.
Actor Allen Dizon was a special guest and led the ribbon cutting at the 25th Gawad PASADO exhibit at the NTC lobby in the presence of guests and officials of NTC and PASADO. Dizon, a multi-awarded actor, is also a member of PASADO.
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| Actor Allen Dizon and Reg Pastor at the opening of the 25th Gawad PASADO Exhibit. Photo by Shai Gondra. |
FILCOLS expresses deep gratitude to Dr. Monreal “Mic” N.
Camba, the summit director, and Bebang Siy, for allowing us to present at the
national summit. Both are long-standing members of FILCOLS.
FILCOLS staff Shai Gondra accompanied Pastor to assist
during the presentation.
The authors allow the reposting of the unaltered
article along with photos provided the following is included at the end:
Text by Shai Gondra and Alvin J. Buenaventura.
Photos by Shai Gondra and the NTC CPO. For more information, please visit http://filcols.blogspot.com
