Law in A Digital World: A Study on Transistion of Books in

Digital Form

and its Corrosive Effect in Intellectual Property

CADAGAT, Anathea Khristina M.

2012-0016

Introduction

The Information Age brought human history to digital revolution mainly by information

computerization. In fact, different technological innovations and advancements have been made

throughout the years. To make this more cogent, influx of different technologies such as

electronic devices and the internet made a significant impact to human lives that veered humans

away from their traditional way of living. Due to technological advancements today, people are

technologically inclined to access limitless resources over the internet.

Talking about limitless resources over the internet, people now have access to music,

files, books, applications, software, and to any other electronic files ready to be downloaded

using a computer or smartphone. Generally, files over the internet are not all for free but rather

some of the files require a payment for royalty and remuneration for the artist and publisher that

owns it. Thus, not all people are economically remunerated to purchase and have access to these

paid files but as technology progresses and develops, tech savvy pirates were born to find ways

to reproduce and shares files over the internet whether legal or illegal. In the end, this becomes

problematic and thus opens the gate to people to get copies of the files on the internet without

paying and without consent from the authorized person. In the end, it leads to copyright

infringement and intellectual property right as piracy and the pirate gets prevalent nowadays to

comply with the law.

In the Philippines, many publishers and authors are adapting to technological trend and

yet economical for them because they won’t incur overhead expenses such as printing and they

will get high margins, or you can sell books even cheaper online. But the danger of piracy to

books from transitioning to digital form might have corrosive effect to intellectual property and

copyright infringement that give light to be the sole topic of this research.

Philippines Copyright Law and the Doctrine of Fair Use

Long before the publishers and authors opted to do digital copies of their books there had

been numerous cases related to copyright infringement, intellectual property, and piracy of

books. An example is Habana vs. Robles (G.R. No. 131522 dated July 19, 1999), the Supreme

Court found the respondent guilty of copyright infringement when he copied, incorporated and

reproduced certain portions from the petitioner’s college textbook in his own book. When the

respondent argued that there was no verbatim copying of the entire book, the Supreme Court

emphatically held that it is not required that the entire work or even a large portion thereof be

copied in order for copyright infringement to exist. It is enough that so much is taken that the

value of the original work is substantially diminished

According to Pamaos (2006) copyright infringement takes on three forms namely

administrative, civil or criminal. As an administrative complaint, it can be brought before the

Intellectual Property Office while it may be filed in regular courts as a criminal or civil case. As a

criminal offense, copyright infringement is punishable by imprisonment ranging from one (1)

year to nine (9) years and a fine ranging from Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000.00) to One Million

Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (P1,500,000.00) depending on the value of the infringing

materials, damage to the copyright owner and the number of offenses committed.

Any person found guilty of copyright infringement shall be liable:

(a) To an injunction restraining such infringement. The court may also order the defendant to

desist from an infringement, among others, to prevent the entry into the channels of

commerce of imported goods that involve an infringement, immediately after customs

clearance of such goods.

(b) To pay to the copyright proprietor actual damages, including legal costs and other

expenses, as he may have incurred due to the infringement as well as the profits the

infringer may have made due to such infringement, and in proving profits the plaintiff

shall be required to prove sales only and the defendant shall be required to prove every

element of cost which he claims, or, in lieu of actual damages and profits, such damages

which to the court shall appear to be just and shall not be regarded as penalty.

(c) To deliver under oath, for impounding during the pendency of the action, sales

invoices and other documents evidencing sales, all articles and their packaging alleged to

infringe a copyright and implements for making them.

(d) To deliver under oath for destruction without any compensation all infringing copies

or devices, as well as all plates, molds, or other means for making such infringing copies

as the court may order.

(e) Such other terms and conditions, including the payment of moral and exemplary

damages, which the court may deem proper, wise and equitable and the destruction of

infringing copies of the work even in the event of acquittal in a criminal case.

In addition to punishing direct infringement, the IP Code also penalizes indirect

infringement by holding a person liable for aiding or abetting such infringement (Pamaos, 2006).

This case elucidates that if so much is taken value of the original work is substantially

diminished and incurred injurious effect to the author is an act of infringement and is punishable

under PD No. 49 of the Republic Act No. 8293 and in the new law under Section 177. The

example given explores that a case like in Habana vs. Robles (G.R. No. 131522 dated July 19,

1999) is likely to happen because transition of books into digital form may result to piracy due to

reproduction of copies on the internet.

In the study made by Aguirre (2008), the general public is given the right to reproduce a

work subject to specific limitations. Under Philippine law, fair use of a work for criticism,

comment, news reporting, teaching, including multiple copies for classroom use, scholarship,

research and similar purposes does not infringe copyright. (Sec. 185.1, IP Code)

Copyright Law in the Digital Environment

Copyright is “intangible, incorporeal right granted by statute to the author or originator of

certain literary or artistic productions whereby he is invested, for a limited period, with the sole

and exclusive privilege of multiplying copies of the same and publishing and selling them.”

Copyright, therefore, is the right to own and exploit one’s creation. As owner, the copyright

holder enjoys almost absolute rights over the thing owned, including the right to dispose and

even to destroy. In practice, the original owner, the creator, transfers copyright to a publisher or

distributor (Aguirre, 2008).

In reproducing digital copies of books online, the number one problem that is being face

by the publisher/author is piracy. Intellectual piracy has become a lucrative industry and yet

pirates are utilizing the same new technology to steal the rights of creators. With the use of

decentralized file sharing networks and peer to peer (P2P), and cloud-based file syncing and

sharing, getting digital books is possible and the most important thing is it’s free. But in doing so,

piracy and intellectual infringement is committed by the user. Last year, according to Springen

(2014) in the year 2014 almost 580,000 illegal files have been removed by U.S. piracy-protection

companies and almost billions of dollars are lost due to piracy. In the Philippines, together with

Optical Media Board and Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) who seek

people liable for copyright infringement. Books that have been transitioned to digital form that

suffered piracy due to pirates and illegal file sharing networks gave birth to Electronic

Commerce Act (Rep. Act No. 8792, 2000) penalizes “piracy or the unauthorized copying,

reproduction, dissemination, distribution, importation, use, removal, alteration, substitution,

modification, storage, uploading, downloading, communication, making available to the public,

or broadcasting of protected material, electronic signatures or copyrighted works including

legally protected sound recordings or phonograms or information material on protected works,

through the use of telecommunication networks such as, but not limited to, the internet, in a

manner that infringes Intellectual Property rights…” (Sec. 33, par. b) The Philippine legislature

also passed Republic Act No. 9239, otherwise known as the Optical Media Act of 2003. This Act

penalizes with fine and imprisonment the mastering, manufacture, replication, importation or

exportation of optical media without the necessary licenses from the Optical Media Board, and

the mastering, manufacture or replication of any intellectual property in optical media intended

for commercial profit or pecuniary gain without authority or consent of the owner. (Sec.19, par.

a)

In line with the above mention law, it also list down statutorily protected material,

example of works, acts of infringement:

Statutory protected material Examples of works: Acts of infringement:

1. Books and other

writings

2. Periodcals and

newspaper

E-books are books. Website

publications are covered as are

webpages including sound and

movie recordings available on

the Internet

(Electronic Commerce Act,

R.A. 8792, Section 33,b)

Published or unpublished

articles

Music or movie files on the

internet

Reproducing

Adapting: all forms of

transformation

Selling or transferring

ownership of the object

unless one is already

the lawful owner

Importation of the

work

Applies to all material

objects protected by the

copyright(Section 177)

Unauthorized copying,

dissemination,

reproduction, distribution,

use, removal, alteration,

substitution, modification,

storage, uploading,

downloading, communication,

making available to the public,

broadcasting

(Electronic Commerce Act,

R.A. 8792. Section 33.b)

Source: Intellectual Property Rights: Protecting Economic Interests by Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino, Dean Graduate School of Law San BedaManila,Philippines

Summary and Conclusion

The passage of these two laws was made necessary by the demands of the digital world.

The emergence of the digital environment has become a major copyright problem because of the

ease access with which books online are being copied and reproduced.

We have to consider that whenever we steal someone else’s copyright, we always incur

injurious effect to the owner and to his copyright by stealing it, and that we are not adhering to

the law which we are oblige to follow.

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