KARAPATANG-ARI, IPAPAHAWAK MO BA SA IBA? (April 26, 2010)

Did you know that Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc.(FILCOLS) has discovered that we have collectibles from Copyright Agency Limited of Australia?

Australians and the rest of the world had no idea before where to give what they had received from the reproduction of materials from the Philippines.

For one, we had no collecting society back then.

Which is why, Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) took the initial step to gather all the writers together.

Our General Membership Meeting, also known as UMPILAN, will take place at the University of Santo Tomas's Thomas Aquinas Research Center (TARC) on April 30.

This coming Friday, after the registration at 1 p.m., FILCOLS executive director Alvin Buenaventura will tell us first what International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) is all about.

Then, he will introduce in a roundtable discussion the FILCOLS Board of Trustees – namely, National Artist Virgilio Almario, chair, Karina Bolasco, vice chair (publisher); Lirio Sandoval (foreign publisher’s representative), treasurer; Isagani Cruz (author); Abdon Balde Jr. (author); Mariano Kilates (author); Erlinda Panlilio (author); Max Gomez (publisher); and Roland de Vera (foreign publisher’s representative).Originally entitled Karapatang-ari, Ipapahawak Mo Ba Sa Iba?, this forum will concentrate on Writers and Copyright and will confront such perennial problems as unauthorized xeroxing, to name a few.

UMPIL will seize the post-World Book and Copyright Day by organizing its membership for its different programs and projects including the Second Edition of UMPIL Directory of Filipino Writers, which we co-edited with Romulo Baquiran Jr., Fidelito Cortes, Rafael Ma.Guerrero in 1991.

For non-members, you can download our membership form at www.umpil.org and, after filling it out, kindly email it at umpilmembers@gmail.com with your latest photo and fee of P500 which can be paid cash or check through Landbank S.A. 3071-0317-20.

Members will be given the right to be actively participating in the following committees: Education and Training under Mike Coroza, Ethics under Mario Miclat, International Relations under Karina Bolasco, Finance under Rebecca Aňonuevo, Advocacy under Jose Wendell Capili, Welfare and Benefits under Ruby Gamboa Alcantara, Congress and Convention under Abdon Balde Jr., Publicity under Joey Baquiran, Awards and Grants under Marne Kilates, Publications under Fidel Rillo, and Procedures and Amendments under us. Or, you can join the regional coordinators: Beverly Siy is for Luzon, Charlson Ong for the Visayas, and Frank Rivera for Mindanao.

At the end of the day, we will ask everyone to group, or re-group, for them to problematize the future of Philippine literature, for instance, according to literary genre.

Fr. Roland de la Rosa, the UST Rector is also a writer, would love to grab the chance of having the largest writers organization in the country inside the oldest existing university in Asia, so he is inviting each and everyone of us to submit this coming Friday.

You can contribute soft and hard copies of any literary piece – from poetry to prose -- in English and/or Filipino about UST.

If approved by the Board of Editors, your works will be paid and published in a book to be launched as part of UST's Quadricentennial Anniversary celebration next year.

Two years ago, we, as the UMPIL chair, endorsed FILCOLS as the official national Reproduction Rights Organization of the Philippines.

Last Wednesday, April 21, marked the second anniversary of our partnership.

It all began in 2007 when the National Book Development Board and the Intellectual Property Philippines (IPP) backed up the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP) in forming FILCOLS that was eventually incorporated on 8 January 2008.

IFRRO, after approving its membership on 3 June 2009, sent an invite to FILCOLS to its annual general meeting.

Dean Almario led the Philippine delegation to join some 227 participants from 59 countries in the said gathering last October in Oslo, Norway.

He signed bilateral agreements with the reproduction rights organizations (RRO) of Australia, Argentina, Colombia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Today, by the way, is the first of the two-day World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Asia Pacific Regional Workshop on copyright documentation systems at the Ballrooms C, D and E of the Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

Its main aim is simply to increase awareness of copyright registration and deposit systems currently practiced in the Asia Pacific region, to learn ways of securing and identifying content in the digital environment, as well as to get acquainted with how copyrighted works can be preserved in the digital environment.

WIPO, in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, invited the following experts:

Richard Owens, WIPO's Copyright Law Division director, to talk about Copyright Registries as Tools for Copyright Management: History and Increasing Relevance as well as update us on WIPO activities on Copyright Documentation; Christopher Creswell, a Copyright Law specialist from Canberra, Australia, to tackle Legal Deposit Systems: A Time-Honored Obligation with Modern Applications; Jørgen Blomqvist, a University of Copenhagen honorary professor, to discuss Rights Management Information (RMI) and Digital Identifiers: Legal Issues and Challenges and Digital Preservation: Similarities and Differences among Jurisdictions;
Atty. Jimmy Soriano from Creative Commons to deal with survey of emerging uses of RMI: Creative Commons; Ang Kwee Tiang, the Regional Director of International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) in Singapore to share with us International Standards for Creative Material and Documentation Systems of Collective Management Organizations: Projects and Applications; Prudenciana Cruz, the Director of our National Library, to teach us Preservation of Creative Material in the Digital Environment: Legal Issues and Challenges; Won-Sun Lim, the Director General of Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Library and Information Policy Bureau, to lecture on the Digital Preservation Practices in Asia and the Pacific Region – The Experience of Korea; Amasi Manisekaran, a consultant of WIPO's Cooperation for Development Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, to speak about Activities of WIPO in the Field of Copyright and Related Rights in the Region.

Copyright stakeholders, publishers, authors, libraries, museums, computer software companies and organizations, Collective Management Organizations, Research and Development Institutions and IP associations -- from China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam -- will likewise give us country reports on registration and deposit systems, on one hand, and representatives from YouTube, Google Book Search and Flicker, on the other.

A registration fee of P4,500 will be charged.

For details, please contact Atty. Louie Calvario via 632-238-6300 loc. 206.

TEXT SUPPORT:
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase: “Goodnight, sleep tight.”

CONSIDER THIS:
Three stages of life: 1. TEENS (You have all the time and energy but no money.) 2. WORKERS (You have the money and energy but no time.) 3. OLDIES (You have all the time and money but no more energy.)