Dear Ms. Galvez & Anvil Publishing,
Greetings.
My name is Mark, a creative industries lawyer working for the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).
Last April 15, 2011, at the World Book and Copyright Day held at the UP Technohub, I bought a book from you entitled 100 Kislap by Abdon M. Balde, Jr. Since Mr. Balde was beside me during that time, I took the opportunity to have him personally sign the copy that I bought.
While talking to Mr. Balde, I absentmindedly grabbed the wrong (unsigned) copy of the book and took it home with me.
The following day, I received a text message from your employee, Nelson or 'Nhyl' Eleda. He informed me that I left my signed copy and offered to deliver the book for swapping at the nearest National Book Store. I thanked him for his efforts and told him to leave the book at NBS Buendia cor. Makati Ave. (the one near the gas station).
This morning, I was able to swap the wrong copy I had for the one signed by Mr. Balde, which I consider personally valuable.
For all these things, I commend Mr. Eleda and thank Anvil Publishing for having such a diligent and customer-centered employee. I appreciate the effort Mr. Eleda took to find my contact number, inform me of my mistake and deliver the book to a place most convenient for me.
I realized that the least I could do was write this letter of commendation to the company for Mr. Eleda's outstanding work. I have never experienced such care and diligence from someone working in this industry. This is the kind of person you want in management. I hope that he will be given that opportunity someday.
On the surface, this may appear to simply be about a P200 book, but for me, it's another story worth telling -- a reminder that there are people out there who do their work excellently no matter how simple they may seem on the outside. There's a lesson here somewhere.
God bless you all and best regards.
Respectfully,
Mark Robert A. Dy, J.D.
P.S. To share this story, I am furnishing Mr. Abdon Balde, Jr. (the author of the said book), Atty. Louie Calvario (Copyright Head of IPOPHL), Atty. Andrea Pasion-Flores of NBDB and Mr. Alvin Buenaventura of FILCOLS.
Created by ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
Original post at:
Just as citizens of a nation must be educated about their rights to ensure that they are protected and upheld, so too must those who compose words and music know the rights that support their own acts of creation. Without these rights, which directly emanate from the U.S. Constitution, many who dream of focusing their talents and energies on music creation would be economically unable to do so – an outcome that would diminish artistic expression today and for future generations.
At this time, when so many forces are seeking to diminish copyright protections and devalue artistic expression, this Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers looks to clarify the entitlements that every music creator enjoys.
- We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate.
- We have the right to license our works and control the ways in which they are used.
- We have the right to withhold permission for uses of our works on artistic, economic or philosophical grounds.
- We have the right to protect our creative works to the fullest extent of the law from all forms of piracy, theft and unauthorized use, which deprive us of our right to earn a living based on our creativity.
- We have the right to choose when and where our creative works may be used for free.
- We have the right to develop, document and distribute our works through new media channels - while retaining the right to a share in all associated profits.
- We have the right to choose the organizations we want to represent us and to join our voices together to protect our rights and negotiate for the value of our music.
- We have the right to earn compensation from all types of "performances," including direct, live renditions as well as indirect recordings, broadcasts, digital streams and more.
- We have the right to decline participation in business models that require us to relinquish all or part of our creative rights - or which do not respect our right to be compensated for our work.
- We have the right to advocate for strong laws protecting our creative works, and demand that our government vigorously uphold and protect our rights.
_____
This is pretty straightforward, though some of the rights like #9 are against my stand. Nevertheless, it's a good start for ASCAP in clarifying the purpose of copyright law.
Greed is the enemy of creativity.
- M.R. DY
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.
