Copyright and the Visual Artist

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Precious Leano, FILVADRO Executive Director

Mobile: 0917 828 8690

Email: precious.leano@gmail.com

FILVADRO UPHOLDS COPYRIGHT OF VISUAL ARTISTS

Collective Management Organization to be launched in Copyright Forum at the CCP

The Filipino Visual Arts and Design Rights Organization (FILVADRO), the country’s collective management organization (CMO) for the visual arts, will be launched in a copyright forum at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) on 22 September, 2-5 pm.

International copyright expert Atty. KT Ang from the Confederation of International Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) will speak to visual artists about how to manage the licensing of artworks and how CMOs, with focus on models abroad, support the visual artist’s work.  Also speaking during the forum will be Atty. Mark Robert Dy of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines who will present the Copyright law including, the national system of Registration.

FILVADRO was organized by key visual artists and cultural workers after a series of consultations was conducted in 2009 by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines. Visual artists, including painters, photographers, sculptors, and graphic artists,  have stated in the consultations that there is a need for a visual arts CMO that would assert copyright for the individual. An informal survey conducted during the consultations showed that 100% of visual artists who participated in the survey have not received resale royalties.  

 “FILVADRO acts on behalf of its members to address copyright concerns, mainly the collection of resale rights for artwork sold after the first purchase, the licensing of art images for publication on all kinds of print and digital media, and the reproduction of art on items used for profit and promotion.  It will represent artists in the collection of royalties from copyright users and will be able to extend this representation to other countries where FILVADRO has  partner CMOs,” said Karen Ocampo Flores, noted visual artist and President of FILVADRO.

FILVADRO has recently signed a sister society agreement with the French La Societies Des Auteurs Dans Les Arts Graphiques Et Plastiques (ADAGP), the oldest visual arts CMO in the world. Likewise, FILVADRO is working closely with BONO, the Norwegian CMO for the visual arts.

FILVADRO was founded by noted artists Alex Baluyut, Yael Buencamino, Tina Colayco, Noel Cuizon, Egai Talusan Fernandez, Karen Ocampo Flores, Emmanuel Garibay, Jeannie Javelosa, and cultural worker Precious Leano.   Sculptor and new media artist Josephine Turalba and ceramicist Rita Badillo has recently joined the current Board of Trustees of FILVADRO.

The FILVADRO Forum and Launch is supported by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, CISAC, and the Norwegian Copyright Development Association (NORCODE).

Guidelines on Copyright Registration and Deposit

The Copyright Registration and Deposit System (CoRDS) of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) will be operational by July 14, 2011. You may then begin registering your copyright-protected works at IPOPHL or any of our ten IP Satellite Offices.


The Guidelines have been published online today at the IPOPHL Website.


You may download a PDF copy of the Guidlelines here.


Copyright is the legal protection over an original literary, scholarly, scientific or artistic work. Registration is not necessary to gain copyright-protection but your registration certificate may serve as evidence of such protection. Registration is also needed to complete the records of the National Library of the Philippines (NLP). 




To learn more about copyright and how to protect your original creations, you may email me at markrobertdy@gmail.com

Jungian Stress

Thought for the day:

The artist's life cannot be otherwise than full of conflicts, for two forces are at war within him (or her) -- on the one hand the common human longing for happiness, satisfaction and security in life, and on the other a ruthless passion for creativity which may go so far as to override every personal desire... There are hardly any exceptions to the rule that a person must pay dearly for the divine gift of creative fire.

- CARL JUNG

The Capiz Reflection: Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Peoples' Rights

If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?

- J. EDWARD CHAMBERLIN

There is very little we know about ourselves in spite of the years and years of formal education we are compelled to accomplish... but ever so rarely, a moment comes when the horizon suddenly explodes into wide view for just a split second... and we are forever transformed by what greatness we see and what little we remember.

For me, this experience was not a first in its valuable components, but it was certainly a first in its combination. I have been an Indigenous Peoples' Rights Advocate for about five years now and an artist for much, much longer than that... but I never really had these two separate worlds fuse into a beautiful mesh of philosophical possibilities (this only goes to show how little we do with even the things we think we understand).

When you talk about Indigenous Peoples' Rights, one word immediately comes to mind: LAND. After that, everything else becomes a blur, an afterthought, a collateral matter. I fell into that same trap and found myself deprived of a wider area of understanding where I could have given more of myself. After all, what is land without the beliefs, the creations, the art, the epic tales, the science, the survival, the artifacts, the crafts and all that is produced by the minds of the dwellers of that land?

Human communities will never be limited to the physical act of building houses, planting crops and hunting game... All these things acquire meaning... all these things are jealously inseparable from human imagination. In every society, no matter how ancient, there will always a wealth of creativity... from the artisan, the alchemist, the healer, the inventor, the craftsman, the musician, the poet, the merchant, the weapon-smith, the carpenter, the builder, and even the town crier. 

The sun and the stars will never be just balls of flaming gas, but bodies that aid people in navigating through treacherous waters and explaining personalities, behavior and cosmic events... the land will never be just dirt, bugs, and roots but a sacred source of life, healing, and stability. Modern societies and religions reject these notions as "superstitious beliefs" and "heresies"... but today, in this chapter of global decay, this ancient wisdom and affinity to nature just might be what will save the human race.

Makes me think how ignorant we really are today.

When I entered IP Philippines to work, I feared one thing: that my advocacy for human rights would be in peril... that it would be just a pleasant memory (if not the only one) from my days as a law student. I tried to rationalize this by demonstrating that intellectual property is a human right (a fact that I think I proved in my graduate thesis... but was actually more of an attempt to convince myself). Then comes this opportunity... this gap in legal and philosophical understanding that allowed two of my great passions to step in together and shake my imagination.

I was humbled during these few days in Capiz... I was humbled by the T'boli weavers and musicians... by the Ati alchemists and the healers... by the Kalinga builders and percussionists. For these people, art and science have always been a part of life... not just source of cheap thrills. Everything I saw was celebration of hundreds of years of the diversity and unity of what we now know as the Filipino.  

After the reflection, comes the resolve. What I do with what I know must protect human creation... not only that which is new... but also the creativity that has been part of our history and heritage. We are who we are today because of these things... and only by looking back at them can we find a way to deeply know ourselves.

In the end, I had to step out of lawyer-mode to become part of the entire human experience of pure imagination. Doubts were kicked aside and disbelief was suspended. What I found humbled me and humbled me again as it expanded my mind further (and this didn't even involve Peyote).

Now it's time to come home, knowing that I am mounds richer today than I was a week ago. Thank you, Capiz.

Art Inspires Art: Even Angels Cry by Ida

Here is an impressive piece of digital art created by Ida from the Philippines, inspired by Sundown Caffeine's song Even Angels Cry.


Original artwork found at:
http://ida-d-great.deviantart.com/art/Even-Angels-Cry-68253354


Thanks for sharing this with us, Ida! :)


Peace out!

The Rights of the Soul

Originally published in the February 2006 edition of ThePalladium for my column Legal Personality.


Being a fervent advocate of human rights, I am morally bound to speak about how much the marginalized need us and how little they have in both in life and in the application of the law. On a different note, twenty years of Jesuit education has taught me that one cannot truly give what s/he does not have. Jesus Christ, himself, said “If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” And thus, I am equally bound to say that we, ourselves, have a solemn duty to protect our own rights – some of which we do not even recognize.


American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, taught us that the human person has a hierarchy of needs. From bottom to top, he listed them down as Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, and at the apex, Actualization. One has to satisfy the lower-level needs in order to go up the next rung and satisfy the higher ones. The problem with human rights theory is that it is often restricted to the bottom two levels (food, shelter, clothing, education, safety, etc.) – ensuring people’s survival. But is it fair to end there? A full stomach with an empty heart?


This is where these higher-level rights come in, which I conveniently call “The Rights of the Soul”. Like human rights, these rights are inalienable, inherent and imprescriptible. They cannot be given away or sold, they are not granted by law but are part and parcel of one’s humanity, and they cannot be extinguished through time. One cannot separate them completely from human rights because they are, in fact, human rights and emanate from the same continuum of liberties and freedoms. For instance, the freedom of expression is expanded to form the freedoms of art and music – of beauty… not only to express but to also appreciate and judge the same. The freedoms of religious and political belief also go higher than mere organized beliefs but to personal ones – the right to hope, to dream, to have access to the ideal and the divine. The freedom to feel – to love, to laugh, to cry, to hate, to experience the broad spectrum of human emotions and to go through them again and again. The right to privacy also goes deeper and creates a right to keep one’s life compartmentalized without the fear of being accused of duplicity against the other aspects of his/her life… to be separate his/her career, family and passions from one another.


These are only instances and, no different from human rights, there can be no real possibility of enumerating them all because these are the things that make us human (a concept which might never be fully comprehended). Not only humans of flesh and blood but humans of soul and spirit – things that allow us to reach out into the unknown, the impossible, and the divine and, somehow, make them real.


So, when will we begin to assert these rights? Many people impliedly relinquish these rights by living their lives mechanically… they work, study, eat, sleep and do it all over again the next day and the next until on end. By doing this, no matter how wealthy or intelligent, are they not oppressed as well? One who does not live his/her life all the way to actualization cannot teach another about beauty or meaning or hope. The best that s/he could do is offer material things that inevitably perish in time.


The rights of the soul that we protect turn us into beings of power and by only protecting them, will we be able to empower others.


And here I am, just finished writing a new song while I swallow the last drops of my Starbucks peppermint mocha frapuccino as an unwashed little girl approaches me and begs for a few coins. I hand her a twenty and send her off with a smile and a prayer. I then put on my black jacket and walk home.


So much for higher level rights.