Legality of fun page

The advent of technology allows us to do a lot of things with ease and facility. It also encourage our creativity which sometimes we overlooked its impact.Laws were passed to keep up and regulate the use and impact on these rights and obligations affected.

This involves the right of authors of original works vis a vis the rights of authors of derivative works.

Philippine copyrith laws clearly state that a copyright protection exists in original works(sec 172 of RA 8293) and they are protected by the sole factof their creation,irrespective of their mode or form of wxpression, as well as their content, quality and purpose. Alteration of literary or artistic works known as derivative works shall also be protected provided such new workshall not affect the force of any subsisting copyright upon the original works employed or any part thereof (sec 173 and 173.2 of Ra8293.

The question lies on how far can this work go as not to constitute infringement. A valid defense is "Fair Use" of the subject. Itpermits others to usecopyrighted materials without consent in a reasonable manner forcertain purposes. And this can be answered by sec185 of ra 8293 which provides the guidelines/factors for fair use as follows:

1. The purpose and character of the use: for criticism, commercial or non profit educational purposes
2. The nature ofcopyrighted work
3. Theamount and substantiality ofthe work used.
4. Effect of the use on the potential market for orvalueof the copyrighted work.

US case laws "Defendants may copy the ideapresented by the photos but may notsimply make copies of the photographs" Time, Inc v Barnard Geis Assoc. An artist may avoid infringement by intentionally making sufficient changes so that the works at issue undercut substantial similarity.(Warner Bros v ABC

In infringement of a copyright, a plaintiff must show ownership of a copyright, and defendant copied the protected work without authorization. A substantial similarity between the work and the protected expression must be shown. Such similarity dows not require literally identical copying of every detail. It is determined by the ordinary test: whether an average lay observer would recognize the alleged copy as having been appropriated from the copyrighted work. (Ideal Toy Corp v Fab-lu Ltd.)

Thus, in summary a lot of things are available to us to enhance and boost our creativity. Let us be careful in using them by checking if there is an existing copyright and should there be , it is always proper to secure a written permission from the author for its exploitation unless the work will fall under "fair use".


Disclaimer: for academic requirement not a legal opinion.