Protect Your Intellectual Property

photo credit: Sam UL

I want to gain popularity as much as the next blogger, even just within my circle of influence. Otherwise, I would have kept a diary instead of a blog. We blog because we want to reach out to a certain audience. Why do you join social networks? Why do you think there’s social networks in the first place? Unless you want to be the wallflower, you joined social networks to get noticed. Everybody wants to be popular!

I’ve read a lot of bloggers complain about their work, blog entries and photos, being copied by other bloggers and even by mainstream media. I also had a blog post copied without my permission, not even a linkback least of all credit. Some people think that because it’s easy to copy information from the web that it’s alright to copy them. Well, it’s not.

As much as you may love writing, it’s not always that easy to think of something interesting to write about. The process of translating your thoughts into coherent paragraphs takes time and effort no matter how good a writer you are. As much as possible you don’t want other people to use your work without permission or gain credit for your hard work.

As a blogger, how would you protect your intellectual property?

You can install plugins that badges such as Creative Commons and Copyscape to be explicit on how you want your copyrighted materials to be used. It won’t stop other people from copying but those who understand what those mean will be forewarned.

Battles on intellectual property can be time consuming and expensive if taken to court. If you think you have all the proof and have a good lawyer, by all means pursue your legal rights. However, please try to settle first out of court. Once you learned that your work has been used without your permission, try to contact the other party. Nobody wants to go to court here in the Philippines if it can be avoided. If they won’t give in to your demands, then maybe that’s the time you can take legal actions. But be prepared for it financially and emotionally since legal battles in the Philippines can take years

I think every Pinoy blogger should read the Philippine Intellectual Property Code so that we’ll be aware of our rights. This way we’ll know how to protect what rightfully belongs to us and also respect the works of other people.

“Works are protected by the sole fact of their creation, irrespective of their mode or form of expression, as well as of their content, quality and purpose.” – Sec. 172.2 of the Phil. Intellectual Property Code

It’s called intellectual property for a reason. Those who plagiarize the works of others doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to create their own. I don’t want to be called dumb, so please, if you see anything on this blog which is a possible copyright infringement, kindly e-mail me.

Tagged as: Intellectual property, Philippines