Copyright law of the Philippines


A copyright is the legal protection extended to the owner of the rights in an original work. Original work refers to every production in the literary, scientific, and artistic domains. The Intellectual Property Office is the leading agency responsible for handling the registration and conflict resolution of intellectual property rights and to enforce the copyright laws. IPOPHL was created by virtue of Republic Act No. 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines which took effect on January 1, 1998, under the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos.
In the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, literary and artistic works include books, writings, musical works, films, paintings, and other works including computer programs.
Works are created on the sole fact of their very creation - regardless of their mode or form of expression as well as their content, the quality of said content, and purpose.

Works covered

Works covered by the copyright law are literary and artistic works and derivative works. On the other hand, works not protected by the copyright law are unprotected subject matter and works of the government.

Literary and artistic works

According to Section 172 of the Intellectual Property Code, literary and artistic works refer to the original and intellectual creations protected from the moment of their creation.
The list of literary and artistic works includes the following:
According to Section 173.2 of the Intellectual Property Code, derivative works are defined as new work provided that they do not violate any subsisting copyright upon the original work employed or any part thereof, or to imply any right to such use of the original works, or to secure or extend copyright in such original works.
The list of derivative works includes the following:
According to Section 174 which refers to the case of a published edition of work, the publisher has the copyright consisting merely of the right of reproduction of the typographical arrangement of the published edition of the work.

Unprotected subject matter

The list of unprotected subject matter include the following:
On the other hand, no copyright shall be applied in any work of the Government of the Philippines. To exploit such works for profit, prior approval from the government agency or office should be made. Such agency or office may impose payment of royalties. It is not required to seek prior approval or conditions for the use for any purpose of statutes, rules and regulations, and speeches, lectures, sermons, addresses, and dissertations, pronounced, read or rendered in courts of justice, before administrative agencies, in deliberative assemblies and in meetings of public character.

Ownership

According to Section 178 and 179 of Republic Act 8293, the copyright ownership is under the following rules:
These are the rights that authors are entitled to according to the law of copyright, under Part IV of R.A. 8293, or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.

Economic Rights

This allows a creator to ask for or obtain payment for the use of his or her work by third parties. According to Section 177 of the Law of Copyright, these rights consist of the right to allow, impede, or carry out the following by the author:
These rights allow the author of the work to maintain his or her personal connection to the work, and to undertake measures in order to protect this connection. The author of the work, independent of the economic rights, also have the right to:
The author and his or her heirs have the inalienable right to partake of 5% of the proceeds of the sale or lease of his or her original work. This inalienable right is in effect during the lifetime of the author, and for fifty years after his or her death.

Related rights

Related rights are the rights of those whose help the author avails of in order to assist him in producing his work, and distributing this work to the public. These rights are also referred to as "neighboring rights" and include the following:

Acts constituting infringement

Section 216 of Republic Act No. 10372 states that a person infringes a right protected under this Act when one:
Any person found infringing rights protected under RA 10372 shall be liable:
Instead of recovering actual damages and profits, the copyright owner may file instead for an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved for not less than Fifty thousand pesos. The court may consider the following factors in awarding statutory damages:
The following acts shall not constitute infringement of copyright:
The provisions under this shall not be interpreted in a way that exploit the works and does not harm the interest of the right holder.

Fair use

A fair use, in its most general sense, is the act of copying of copyrighted materials done for purposes such as commenting, criticizing, or parodying a copyrighted work without the permission from the copyright owner. It is used as a defense under copyright infringement.

Factors in determining fair use

Under fair use, the use of a copyrighted work for purposes of criticizing, commenting, news reporting, teaching, creating researches, and other similar purposes is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made is under fair use, the following factors should be considered:
Given the mentioned rules and regulations above about copyright, reproduction of different materials, without the permission of the author, are still allowed given that they are done for reasons allowed by the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines. Provided here are the reproductions and purposes allowed by the law.

Reproduction of published work

Under Subsection 187.1 of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, the reproduction of a published work shall be permitted without the owner's authorization given that the reproduction was made for research purposes. The permission granted here shall not extend to:
Any library or archive with non-profit purposes may make a single copy of the work without the authorization of the author given that:
The reproduction of one back-up copy of a computer program shall be allowed without the permission of the copyright owner given that the reproduction is for the following uses:

La Concepcion College vs. Catabijan

Author and publisher Raymund Sta. Maria Catabijan was issued 608,450.00 pesos in damages from La Concepcion College, whom he claimed directly copied his work books in order to sell to students. La Concepcion College was found guilty of copyright infringement by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines. The non-sectarian school was hence banned from publishing, selling and distributing copies of Mr. Catabijan's works.

ABS-CBN vs. Willing Willie

ABS-CBN demanded 127 million pesos from their former reality show star, Willie Revillame, citing copyright infringement due to stark similarities in Revillame's show, Willing Willie, and ABS CBN's Wowowee. ABS-CBN listed 5 acts of plagiarism allegedly committed by Willing Willie in their complaint as follows:
  1. Willing Willie's opening song and dance number was similar to that of Wowowee's
  2. “BIGA-Ten” and “Big Time Ka,” both segments from the shows involved, bear similar names.
  3. “Willie of Fortune” and “Willtime Bigtime” are segments from both shows which resemble each other. ABS-CBN claimed that Willtime Bigtime resembled its show as it also showcases contestants relaying their personal stories before proceeding to play a singing/trivia game.
  4. April “Congratulations” Gustilo is one of several backup dancers from Wowowee who also appear in Willing Willie.
  5. Other striking similarities ABS-CBN claimed are found in Willing Willie's set design, stage, studio viewers' seats lay-out, lighting angles and camera angles.
A 25-page ruling later on dated May 22, 2015 junked the case against Revillame, declaring it moot. After the Quezon City RTC demanded a 400 million peso bond from Revillame to answer any further damage the network might sustain, it was later discharged. Revillame signed a contract with GMA network two days prior to the ruling, to work on a new show entitled, “Wowowin."