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April 23
was “World Book and Copyright Day.” The date was set 12
years ago by the Unesco General Conference to pay
worldwide tribute to books and authors, encouraging
everyone, especially the youth, to discover the pleasure
of reading.
The idea
of having this special day originated in Catalonia,
Spain, where on April 23, Saint George’s Day, a rose is
given as a gift for each book sold. This beautiful
tradition has been brought to the Philippines by the
Instituto Cervantes with its dynamic leader Jose “ Pepe”
Rodriguez. The Instituto held a successful celebration
of World Book and Copyright Day on April 19 at their new
complex, with people of all ages enjoying a festival of
music, food and literature.
Yesterday the National Book Development Board (NBDB),
together with the Intellectual Property Office of the
Philippines (IP Philippines) sponsored a daylong forum
at the Filipinas Heritage Library. The forum was
attended by writers, book illustrators, publishers,
school administrators and librarians. NBDB chairman
Dennis Gonzales spoke on the “Importance of Books and
Reading for a Developing Country.” No less than National
Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario shared his
thoughts on “ Why I Write” along with fiction writers
Jose Dalisay Jr. and Susan Lara.
The
afternoon session was devoted to the creative economy or
the copyright industries, where I spoke about the
contributions of the creative sector to national
development, lawyers Susan Villanueva and Louie Calvario
(IP Philippines) discussed the law on copyright and
Roland de Vera, executive director of the newly created
Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, talked about
reprographic-rights organizations.
The
NBDB’s initiative in organizing this forum was an
excellent opportunity not only to inform writers and
artists about their intellectual property rights, but
also to put in perspective the creative economy’s
contribution to our country’s development.
Studies
have shown the economic contributions of the creative
industries. Worldwide, the creative economy was worth
about $ 2.2 trillion in 1999, and is growing at 5
percent a year. According to World Bank estimates, the
creative economy contributed about 7.3 percent of the
global economy in 1999, and continues to grow.
A few
years ago, the World Intellectual Property Organization
(Wipo) developed a methodology to determine or estimate
the economic contribution of these industries. In the
Wipo methodology, the copyright-based industry is
composed of four categories: the “core copyright,” the
“interdependent copyright,” the “partial copyright” and
the “nondedicated copyright.”
Classified as “core copyright” industries are those
primarily involved in the creation, manufacture,
production and distribution of copyrighted works and
have a substantial level of copyright (meaning creative)
activities. The nine industries under this category are
the following: press and literature; music, theater and
operas; motion picture and video; radio and television;
photography; software and database; visual and graphic
arts; advertising services; and copyright-collection
societies. The three other categories consist of
industries that have activities that support or relate
to copyright industries indirectly through
manufacturing, performance, transmission, distribution
and sales.
Using
the Wipo methodology on the Philippines, the findings
show that the “total contribution of CBIs [copyright
based industries] to the GDP of the Philippines was at
4.82 percent. Out of this figure, 3.50 percent was from
the “core copyright” industries, with press and
literature as the biggest contributor.
For
countries that have used the Wipo methodology, the
economic contribution to GDP of copyright sector ranges,
on the average, from 5 percent to 11 percent.
Considering the wealth of talent and creativity in our
society, there is immense potential for growth in this
sector. But it has to start with respecting, protecting
and promoting intellectual-property rights. |
