The Philippine Copyrights Law, unlike other copyrights law is very simple to understand. It defines rights, limitations, economic benefits and what constitutes infringement and not. The Philippine copyrights law was influenced by its US counterpart as reflected in Republic Act 3134 (1924). The Presidential Decree No.49 was ahead in complying with Berne standards, providing for a term that lasted for the life of the author plus 50 years as preserved in the 1998 IP Code.
The Lack of Use of Creative Commons Licenses
My research has yielded that in 2007, Creative Commons Philippines which was under the auspices of Arellano University School of Law was launched where 42nd ported Creative Commons licenses were also introduced in the Philippines. The project was under the eLaw library of Arellano University. However, it did not really take off and the organization has been inactive since then. The Creative Commons was limited to a short period and researching about it revealed very few results. The legal publications from the said university were the subject of said licenses.
Outside of that, there is no data that is available or can be found to prove that there is a healthy use of CC licences. In a country of vast knowledge, unique from the islands that comprise the archipelago, the need to have CC licenses to shared knowledge is crucial in this day and age.
In my research and analysis of the current copyright traditions in publishing and in academics, there is a wide room for oppportunity to promote, advocate and encourage the use of Creative Commnons licenses. When the copyrighted materials become public domain, or when content creators allow the use, reuse, remix and alteration of copyrighted materials, it is more convenient to use Creative Commons licenses as it is easy to use, easy to access and convenient for creators and users alike. Since CC licenses provide almost anyone a standardized way to grant public permission to use a creator’s creative work under the copyright law, having a CC license tells the user what can he do with that particular work.
Now comes the opportunity for a new and reactivated Creative Commons Chapter in the Philippines to take a stand and advocate for the CC license use. Although the copyrights law is quite lenient on the limitations of copyrights and broad on the economic benefits of the creator, ordinary people have vague ideas on how to navigate the copyrights law. A thorough study would reveal that today’s population, due to the internet understand Creative Commons license better than the actual copyright issued by the Intellectual Property Office.
Works Cited:
Case Study on the Copyrights Law in the Philippines and the Opportunity of CC licenses © 2023 by Vanj Padilla is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0