Friday, October 17, 2008 IP agency urges artists to create group, exercise right over works
THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPO) urged visual artists to form a group that will act as intermediary between copyright holders and users, as well as collect and distribute royalties.
As stipulated in the IP Code, visual artists have economic rights, such as the right to collect five percent of gross sales for subsequent sale of their works and the right to royalty upon reproduction of their work.
Visual artists own the images they create for life and for 50 years after their death.
“Most artists are not aware of their rights. Artists can, as individuals, ask for their share. Better yet, artists can band together to form a collecting society, already a stable source of income in many first world countries, to implement these rights,” said IP Philippines director general Adrian Cristobal Jr.
In the country, the Filipinas Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers is the first and oldest collecting society that collects for its members in the music industry. Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society and the Performers Rights of the Philippines were recently organized for writers and performers, respectively.
Not formed yet
However, a collecting society for visual artists (painters, sculptors, fine art artists and photographers), which can facilitate clearances and institute monitoring systems to go after those who resell or reproduce original works, has yet to be formed.
IP Philippines, supported by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., held a copyright forum for artists in the Visayas last Wednesday at the Casa Gorordo Museum.
The forum was part of the program called Punto de Vista, which is also a series of consultation meetings in key cities in the country that aims to identify the needs of the art sector with regard to intellectual property.
IP Philippines consultant Precious Leaño said artists form the core of copyright-based industries as creators of products and services that spur the national economy.
She cited a 2007 study by the World Intellectual Property Organization, which found that copyright-based industries in the Philippines contribute some 4.82 percent or approximately P144 billion to its gross domestic product and employ more than 300,000 workers nationwide. Of the total, 2.13 percent is from the copyright industry of press and literature while the amount of contribution by visual artists is not indicated.
Locally, there has been no official statistics on income derived from art. However, Leaño noted that some artists in Manila earn less than P300,000 a year or about P25,000 a month.
Still, the “determination of the national policy sees the cultural sector as far removed from the realities of economics,” she said.
Sources of sales for the artists include direct dealings with art collectors or through galleries, independent dealers and auctions, among others.
“There is actually money in art. An artist will not starve anymore if he will only assert his right. They (artists) should assert their IP rights
in order to increase personal income and be recognized as an economic contributor to nation building,” said Leaño, who is married to an artist. (NRC)
