First-ever PH-Int’l Copyright Summit boosts copyright awareness with 2.5 million in web traffic

December 29, 2021

The first-ever Philippine International Copyright Summit (PICS) of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has recorded over 2.5 million in traffic on  its five-day run in November, helping further copyright as a tool to accelerate the creative economy’s recovery from the pandemic. 

“Drawing in massive interest and engagement from various creators, developers and art enthusiasts, the PICS was a definite success in raising awareness, educating the public and generating respect for copyright and related rights,” said Emerson G. Cuyo, director of IPOPHL’s Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights (BCRR). 

“With this, we hope to sustain the gains we have made from this event in the years to come, to continue building an enabling environment for creativity to thrive through intellectual property, particularly copyright,” Cuyo added.

A week-long virtual event with the theme “United in Copyright,” the PICS was historic and ground-breaking for bringing together formidable players, experts, policymakers and other stakeholders in the local and international creative economy to discuss copyright issues and opportunities in various fields. 

PICS highlighted the current state of the local and global publishing, visual arts, performing arts, photography, game development, app development, architecture, fashion, music, film and animation industries.

Various speakers also shed light on crucial but less known aspects of the legal copyright system such as resale rights, reprographic rights, distribution rights and freedom of panorama. PICS also helped clear out misconceptions between actual copyright infringement and sub-conscious copying.

Also taking center stage were the growing interest and concerns with digital music rights, non-fungible tokens, artificial intelligence and other technologies that are compelling a rethink of copyright laws today.

And with the Philippines-Korea Copyright Commission Forum, held during the PICS, Philippine creators also learned best practices, including robust copyright strategies, which helped the global advancement of the Republic of Korea’s film, music and other copyright-based industries.

Bringing value with copyright awareness

National Artist for Literature Nominee Jose “Butch” Dalisay, Jr., one of the guest speakers at the PICS, said he was thankful for IPOPHL’s efforts to build copyright awareness among creators, something he had wished for when he was starting his career as a writer when his creative labor had been exploited several times. 

“I have yet to meet a writer, an artist or a musician my age who does not recall some instance of being taken advantage of when they were starting off in their careers,” Dalisay said.

For National Artist for Dance Alice Reyes, she found it “very embarrassing” to admit to learning about copyright only recently.

She added that upon learning about intellectual property, she reached out to as many choreographers as she could, to help more be made aware of their creative, moral and economic rights over their works. 

“To our great joy, so many gems of Philippine dance works are now properly copyrighted,” Reyes said. 

National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab emphasized the need for societies to constantly find the delicate balance between protecting the rights of artists and the need to foster creativity through copyright.

“Music and copyright have had long and at times complex relationships. Without copyright, musical compositions and recorded music will have no legal protection and have little financial value. And yet the history of music… is replete with instances of borrowing, copying, using and building upon past works,” Cayabyab said, while reassuring the music industry’s support for IPOPHL in raising copyright awareness.

For its part, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) committed to step up awareness raising activities to help more creators make informed business and livelihood decisions. 

“Despite the challenges this is an exciting time for the creative industry of the Philippines. WIPO looks forward to continuing our work together to find opportunities for creators in the Philippines and beyond, to take their ideas, their music, their films and creative content to the world,” WIPO Director General Daren Tang said in his congratulatory speech for IPOPHL.

Toward being SE Asia’s top creative economy

IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said he believes the Philippines can achieve international success in the creative economy, like South Korea.

He said “a huge global expansion” in the Philippine creative economy is currently unfolding, citing among others the topping of Philippine comic book-based animated series “Trese” in many Netflix territories and HBO Asia’s adoption of the award-winning Erik Mati film “On the Job” into a mini-series. 

“These recent global successes showcase the strength of our country’s creative industries, and explains why we are confident in our aim towards making the Philippines the number one creative economy in Southeast Asia,” Barba added. 

In 2018, the Philippines was ranked 1st in ASEAN for creative services exports and 5th in total creative exports.

Copyright awareness for building back stronger 

“Scaling up copyright appreciation in the country will be one way to aid the CBIs in their recovery. It is urgent that we support the creative economy in building back better with copyright as this can serve as one of the engines of our country’s post-pandemic growth,” Barba said.

A WIPO-commissioned study, released in 2014 reported that Philippine copyright-based industries contributed an estimated 7.34% to our GDP in 2010. Copyright-based exports, at 3.06% of total exports, exceeded copyright-based imports at 0.81%. The same study found that workers in copyright-based industries formed 14.14% of all people employed in 2010. 

During the forum, President Rodrigo R. Duterete expressed his support for IPOPHL.

“Not only will [PICS] serve as a platform to reach out to the different stakeholders in the copyright-based industries, it will also offer the opportunity of local and foreign partnerships with those who share the same passion in creating,” Duterte said at the event. 

“Given that copyright is at the core of our country’s growing creative economy, I am confident this summit will benefit our country’s creative industries, which is a fast-growing and high-value contributor to the Philippine economy,” Duterte added.