IT Law Journal

administrator January 14th, 2008

Creative Commons Philippines: Promoting Creative Commons

How can one promote Creative Commons? Depending on one’s area of expertise, one can get involved in Creative Commons in a variety of ways. Creators can CC license their works. Creative Commons licenses would not be of much use if there would be little enthusiasm from authors that create works. Developers can provide ideas on tools that could help users license their work more easily. Lawyers can consider giving some pro bono counseling to potential license users by educating them about the current state of copyright, the Creative Commons mission and all the legalities of using the licenses. Further, Creative Commons can be supported pecuniarily, since donations keeps the organization and its projects alive.¹

On the part of Creative Commons Philippines, Atty. Jaime N. Soriano and Atty. Michael Vernon Guerrero have taken every opportunity to promote Creative Commons licensing.

For the year 2007, Atty. Soriano has given lectures on “Digital Copyright” on 21 January 2007 and 3 March 2007, in accredited Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) seminars sponsored by the Center for Legal Education and Research, Arellano University School of Law. He also provided a lecture on “New Publishing Models in the Digital Environment” during the ‘Sub-Regional Roundtable on Copyright-Based Business: Authorship, Publishing and Access to Knowledge’ of the Philippine Intellectual Property Office in partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Japan Copyright Office (JCO) at the Batanes Function Room, Lower Level, Edsa Shangri-La Manila Hotel in Pasig City on 29 March 2007. He also provided a lecture on “Blogging and Copyright Law,” 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit (i-Blog 3) sponsored by the UP College of Law - Internet Society Program at the School of Economics Auditorium, UP Campus, Diliman, Quezon City on 13 April 2007; and a lecture on “Use of Creative Commons Licenses in Publishing”, in a seminar sponsored by the Interinstitutional Communication Workshop 2007, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Harrar Hall Seminar Room, IRRI, College, Laguna on 16 May 2007. All these lectures tackled Creative Commons licenses.² He also teaches Technology and the Law, which includes topics on digital copyright, at the Arellano University School of Law.

Atty. Guerrero, on the other hand, promoted the use of Creative Commons among his peers during two seminars, sponsored by the Freidrich Naumann Stiftung, that he attended, i.e. the “Strategic Planning” seminar in Gummersbach, Germany on 8-21 July 2007; and the “Education: Liberal Perspective” seminar in Negros Oriental, Philippines on 26-29 September 2007. He also provided a lecture on “Creative Commons” during the Kapihan sa PeLS Program organized by the Philippine e-Learning Society at College of St. Benilde in Taft Avenue, Manila on 24 September 2007; and on “Copyright: Issues and Concerns,” at the 6th National Conference on eLearning: “Learning about Technology, eLearning with Technology for the Academe and Industry”, organized by the Philippine e-Learning Society held at St. Martin de Porres Auditorium (Medicine Auditorium) of University of Santo Tomas on 26 October 2007.³ He teaches Overview of Commercial Law, which includes topics on copyright, at the paralegal institute, Institute of Continuing Legal Education.

1. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Main_Page [↩]
2. http://soriano-ph.com/about-the-publisher/lectures/ [↩]
3. http://www.berneguerrero.com/node/3 [↩]

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