FILCOLS inks First Licensing Agreement with Government Agency

The Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS) signed its first licensing agreement with the government’s Department of Education last 5 December 2012. FILCOLS chair Dr. Isagani R. Cruz and DepEd secretary Br. Armin A. Luistro, FSC signed the agreement at the Bulwagan ng Karunungan (Knowledge Hall), DepEd Complex, Pasig City.

Signing of the licensing agreement between FILCOLS and the Philippine Department of Education. (l-r) FILCOLS executive director Alvin J. Buenaventura, DepEd secretary (minister) Br. Armin A. Luistro, FSC, and FILCOLS chair Dr. Isagani R. Cruz. (Photo by OSEC)

The Department (Ministry) of Education is the largest bureaucracy in the country with 647,299 employees scattered in 17 regions. These are mainly teachers handling 21.49 million students for the 2012-2013 school year.  The enrolees for this school year are 1.73 million in kindergarten, 14 million in elementary, and 5.76 million in secondary.

For 2013, the Department of Education has been allocated PHP 292.7 billion (USD 17 billion or EURO 12.6 billion). The education department receives the largest allocation from the government budget.

Earlier in May 2012, Br. Armin wrote to Dr. Cruz to tell him that the Department does not have “significant funds” for copyright fees. However, he acknowledged the right of authors to just remuneration for the use of their creations.

Prior to his appointment as Education Secretary (Minister), Br. Luistro was the president of the De la Salle University – Manila. He is a member of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, a Roman Catholic religious congregation dedicated to provide a human and Christian education.

FILCOLS is the Philippine collective management organization (CMO) in the text and image sector incorporated in 2008 as a not for profit organization. The society is a member of the Brussels-based International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) since 2009.

FILCOLS was the product of the cooperation among government and rightsholders associations namely National Book Development Board (NBDB), Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines), Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), and the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL – Writers’ Union of the Philippines).

BDAP initially funded FILCOLS in 2008-2009. BDAP is the country’s largest book industry association and organizer of the annual Manila International Book Fair since 1979. UMPIL is the largest association of Filipino writers. 

FILCOLS received support, both technical and financial, from various Norwegian rightsholders organizations and from the Norwegian government through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). From 2010-2012, NORAD provided grants for FILCOLS together with Kopinor, the reproduction rights organization (RRO) of Norway; and the Norwegian Copyright Development Association (NORCODE). 

Cruz was a founding board member of FILCOLS. In 2010, the general membership of FILCOLS elected him chair. He taught at the De la Salle University – Manila for 38 years and also headed its publishing arm. After his retirement from DLSU, he became president of The Manila Times College at the beginning of 2011. 

The Manila Times College was the first private college licensee of FILCOLS. TMTC signed the agreement last July 30.

Witnesses to the FILCOLS-DepEd signing were FILCOLS executive director Alvin J. Buenaventura and IMCS director Socorro A. Pilor. The Instructional Materials Council Secretariat is an office under the Department of Education tasked with developing the learners’ materials and teachers’ guides.

Post event: FILCOLS @ the 3rd LibraryLink Conference 2012

To address concerns on intellectual property rights (IPRs) especially copyright issues on the web and digital libraries, the Filipinas Heritage Library in cooperation with FILCOLS organized the 3^rd LibraryLink Conference at the library’s headquarters in Makati City from October 17 to 19.

With the theme “Beyond Librarianship: Information as a Way of Life” this year’s conference gathered librarians and other information gatekeepers from different institutions in the country.

The 3rd LibraryLink Conference gathered participants from various libraries and institutions.

Day one of the conference provided a general view of the library and the librarian.

 FHL director Maritoni Ortigas welcomes the participants and officially opened the conference.

Atty. Antonio M. Santos

Keynote speaker Atty. Antonio M. Santos discussed the relevance of the library in the digital age. Santos was recently appointed by President Noynoy Aquino as director of the National Library of the Philippines. Before NLP, he headed the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Law library. (http://web.nlp.gov.ph/nlp/)

Myra Michele Brown focused on the changing and ever important role of the librarian in the digital age. Brown is an information resource officer at the US Department of State.

FILCOLS executive officer for licensing Napoleon G. Almonte explained the history of libraries. He stressed the role of libraries as sanctuaries.

Day two of the conference focused on the fast changing relations among library, content, technology, and its young patrons.

Leigh Reyes concretized the meaning of information overload with mind-blowing figures like the 100 billion photos on Facebook and the trillion views of Youtube videos. Reyes is the president and chief creative officer of Lowe Philippines, one of the top advertising agencies in the country. (http://www.lowephilippines.com/)

Leigh Reyes

Inquirer Group’s JV Rufino discussed the past and future of print. Rufino is the director for mobile and books of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the leading broadsheets in the country. He is also the editor-in-chief of Inquirer.net (http://www.inquirer.net/)

JV Rufino

Nelson Co discussed how libraries can provide worldwide access to and earn from its collection of rare books by converting them into Flipbooks (http://onlinelibrary.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/). Co is the managing director of TradeChannel Philippines.

Nelson Co

Maria Ressa explained the fragmentation of media outlets from the dominance of ABS-CBN and GMA in 2008 to the entry of new channels in 2012. Ressa stressed the participation of amateurs in the creation of content for social media and the developing collaboration between professionals and citizen journalists. She was the former head of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs and now CEO of Rappler. (http://www.rappler.com/)

Maria Ressa

Book signing of Ressa’s latest work “10 days, 10 years: From Bin Laden to Facebook” followed after her presentation.

Beverly Siy regaled the audience with her witty presentation on what the youth expect from their libraries and librarians. Siy conducted an informal survey of young library patrons from various parts of the country to get the latest feedback from the ground. Siy was the former FILCOLS executive officer for membership and documentation. She is now a consultant at the National Book Development Board. (http://nbdb.gov.ph/)

Beverly Siy

 Siy’s latest book “It’s a Mens World” was a finalist at the 31^st National Book Awards.

The last day of the conference was dedicated to IPRs, readership survey, and techniques to encourage the youth to become readers.

Alvin J. Buenaventura

FILCOLS executive director Alvin J. Buenaventura explained why copyright is a human right as provided for in Article 27.2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (http://www.ohchr.org/en/udhr/pages/introduction.aspx). He also explained the operations of an RRO like FILCOLS and the Fair Use provision in the IP Code.

For the panel discussion, FILCOLS invited Atty. Mark Andrew C. Herrin, Debbie Ann Tan, and Imelda Morales.

Atty. Mark Andrew C. Herrin

Mark Andrew C. Herrin is one of the young lawyers at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL). Fresh from his IP training in Sweden, Herrin discussed IP issues on the internet and the latest legislations affecting the digital world. (http://www.ipophil.gov.ph/)

Debbie Ann Tan talked about her harrowing experience when her name was used without her permission in a bastardized version of her work. Tan is a Palanca awardee and teaches at the Miriam College in Quezon City.

Ime Morales

Imelda Morales shared her exploitation at the hands of a big organization to produce articles for their website. Morales is a single parent who lives on freelance writing. Her sad experience led her to found the Freelance Writers Guild of the Philippines (https://www.facebook.com/groups/139347056147493/).

FILCOLS helped in establishing the freelance writers in the country. Read previous articles here (http://filcols.blogspot.com/2011/07/freelance-writers-come-together-to-form.html and http://filcols.blogspot.com/2011/10/post-event-pinoy-freelance-writers.html).

Following the panel discussion, Atty. Andrea Pasion-Flores presented the highlights of the 2012 NBDB Readership Survey. She is the executive director of the National Book Development Board.

Atty. Andrea Pasion-Flores

Author Dr. Lina B. Diaz de Rivera presented strategies on how to engage young adult readers with contemporary Philippine fiction. She is a professor at the UP Diliman College of Education.

Dr. Lina B. Diaz de Rivera

In her live blog, libriarian Zarah Gagatiga thanked the IP panel for providing “substantial information,” for making copyright easy to understand, and for “sharing real life examples of plagiarism and exploitation.” (Read her live blog here http://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/2012/10/day-3-of-3rd-lib-link-copyright-ipr.html).

FILCOLS Panel discussion

FILCOLS is honoured to be a partner of the Ayala Foundation, Inc. and FHL in this successful conference. 

FHL deputy director Suzanne Yupangco, Alvin J. Buenaventura, and FHL staff Cecil Ayson.

FILCOLS is a member of the Brussels-based International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (www.ifrro.org). FILCOLS receives support from the Norwegian Copyright Development Association (http://www.norcode.no/en) and KOPINOR, the Norwegian RRO (http://www.kopinor.no/) .

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The author allows the reposting of the unaltered article along with photos in other websites as long as the following is included at the end:

Text by Alvin J. Buenaventura. Photos by Gilbert De Jesus, FHL Digital Imagist. For more information, please visit http://filcols.blogspot.com and http://www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/

FILCOLS inks first licensing agreement with The Manila Times College

The Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS) reached an important milestone with the signing of its first licensing agreement with The Manila Times College (TMTC) last 19 July 2012. FILCOLS chair Dr. Isagani R. Cruz and TMTC chair Dr. Dante A. Ang signed the agreement in its campus in Intramuros at the heart of Manila.

TMTC is a private tertiary educational institution established by Dr. Ang in 2003. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Manila Times, the Philippines’ oldest English daily newspaper established in 1898.

The college offers programs in Journalism; Mass Communication; Secondary Education, major in English; Film Production; and Acting for Film and TV. It has partnerships with other educational institutions like the Asia-Pacific College, Don Bosco Technical College, and Emilio Aguinaldo College. It also forged links with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.

Established in 2008, FILCOLS is the Philippine collective management organization (CMO) in the text and image sector. FILCOLS was organized and initially funded by the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), the country’s largest book industry association.

The government through the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines and National Book Development Board (NBDB) played an important role in helping BDAP gather the authors and publishers together. The bulk of the author-members of FILCOLS come from the Writers’ Union of the Philippines (UMPIL – Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas), the largest association of Filipino authors. 

From 2010 to 2012, FILCOLS received grants for its operations from the Norwegian government through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD); from Kopinor, the reproduction rights organization (RRO) of Norway; and the Norwegian Copyright Development Association (NORCODE).

NORAD supported FILCOLS in 2010 through NORCODE.

Kopinor Development Fund headed by Hans-Petter Fuglerud provided grants for FILCOLS in 2010 to 2012.

Hans-Petter Fuglerud visited Manila on different occasions to assess FILCOLS and provide technical advice.          (Photo by AJB)

NORCODE was formed by five Norwegian CMOs in 2007. Managing Director Frode Lovik visited the Philippines on different occasions to assess FILCOLS. Along with Kopinor, NORCODE provided grants for FILCOLS in 2010 to 2012.

NORCODE managing director Frode Løvik. (Photo by AJB)

Cruz was a founding board member of FILCOLS and was elected chair in 2010. After more than three decades as professor and publisher at the De la Salle University – Manila, he retired and then headed TMTC as its president in early 2011. Cruz is a multi-awarded author, a former undersecretary at the Department of Education, and a leader of many local and international organizations.

FILCOLS chair Dr. Isagani R. Cruz.

 FILCOLS executive director Alvin J. Buenaventura said “FILCOLS is not against the photocopying of copyrighted works in schools. Photocopying is a valuable tool in education. Some photocopying inside higher education institutions (HEIs) may be within fair use. But every semester millions of HEIs students photocopy works on a large scale. Those millions of reproduced works were made without a single cent of royalty paid to authors. These actions obviously hurt the livelihood of authors. We believe this is not fair and must be properly compensated.”

The “Fair Use” clause is a limitation on the exclusive rights of authors to their works. In section 185 of the IP Code, “use of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching including multiple copies for classroom use, scholarship, research, and similar purposes is not an infringement of copyright.”

The “multiple copies for classroom use” is the portion being used by HEIs as their “Fair Use Defense” for the massive photocopying inside their campuses. 

However, the law mandated four factors that must be considered to determine fair use: (a)The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit education purposes; (b) The nature of the copyrighted work; (c) The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (d) The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. (Sec. 185, IP Code or RA 8293)

The effect of the use on the potential, not actual, market for or value of the work is the most important factor. Massive photocopying which happens systematically inside HEIs affects the livelihood of authors.

Buenaventura explained that in one private university he visited the author-professor complained of the “harapang pagnanakaw” (brazen stealing) of royalties due him and other authors because of the large-scale uncompensated photocopying. 

“FILCOLS believes in the balancing of rights. We agree that some use may be within Fair Use, but we know that in practice the systematic, massive photocopying goes beyond what is fair to authors and publishers. For this reason, The Manila Times College, which I also head as president, was the first institutional licensee of FILCOLS and the first school to be copyright compliant,” Dr. Cruz stressed.