Flexible Copyright for Filipino Authors

LOCAL online authors, from artists, educators and scientist to bloggers, with the exception of software writers, can now protect their digital intellectual property using a freeware more flexible than copyright.

Creative Commons Philippines have launched CC-PH License Version 3.0, which can be used free of charge.

A CC license covers books, websites, blogs, photographs, films, videos, songs, and other audio and visual recordings.


Creative Commons, a non-stock, non-profit global organization operating in over 50 countries, provides free tolls allowing authors, scientists, artist, and educators to mark their creative work with certain freedoms, from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved”.

While the existing copyright regime applies to intellectual properties in digital form, it stifles creativity, limits public exposure and restrains the creator’s freedom to choose how internet users could exploit or distribute their work.

According to Atty. Jaime Soriano, CC-Philippines legal and public head, Creative Commons gives creators of digital works the option to let the world know how they want their works used.

Unlike copyright that one has to seek permission to use a work, permission in Creative Commons has already been granted. But the creator can still control when he wants attribution, whether he wants to limit use to non-commercial use or whether he will not allow modifications to his work.

Is CC anti-copyright? No it is not. Atty. Soriano specifies that it is base on and works within the framework of copyright. It recognizes that every intellectual creation in the digital world is entitled to legal and moral respect.

CC can be use in conjunction with a commercial license. For example, an author can permit the general public to use his work under a CC license at the same time he enters into a separate and different non-exclusive license with someone else for money.

While copyright principles are almost uniform in every country that recognizes it since the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protections of Literary and Artistic Works, some of its terms still vary.

Hence, Creative Commons embarked on porting its licenses in each country affiliate to ensure that local CC licenses conform to domestic copyright laws.

The CC-PH License is important because the generic license of Creative Commons is patterned after that of the US where copyright is territorial. For instance, the US has no concept of moral right in its copyright law unlike Philippine copyright law. Thus, we need to port the license and come up with a local version to make it enforceable here.

The Philippines has successfully ported its local CC license last December 15, 2007, the 42nd country in the world to do so. The license is now available to local internet users via www.creativecommons.org or www.philippinecommons.org.

The lead public institution for CC-Philippines is Arellano University School of Law (AUSL), through its e-Law Center.

Source: Manila Bulletin by Emmie V. Abadilla

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