Wikipedia:Philippines copyright law

The following works are not protected by copyright law in the Philippines :


 * 1) Ideas
 * 2) Procedures
 * 3) System methods or operations
 * 4) Concepts
 * 5) Principles
 * 6) Discoveries or more data even if they are expressed, explained, illustrated or embodied in the work
 * 7) News of the day and other miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press information
 * 8) Any official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature
 * 9) Official translation

The following works are copyrightable:


 * 1) Books, Pamphlets and other writings;
 * 2) Periodicals and newspapers;
 * 3) Lectures, sermons, addresses, dissertations prepared for oral delivery. Whether or not reduced in writing or other material form;
 * 4) Letters;
 * 5) Dramatic or dramatico-musical composition (T.V. or movie scripts), Choreographic works or entertainment in dumb shows;
 * 6) Musical compositions, with or without works;
 * 7) Works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, Engraving, lithography or other works of art, models or designs of work of art;
 * 8) Original ornamental designs or models for articles of manufacture; whether or not registrable as an industrial design, and other works of applied art;
 * 9) Illustrations, maps, plans, sketches, charts and three-dimensional relative to geography, topography, architecture or science;
 * 10) Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical racter;
 * 11) Photographic works and cinematographic works and works produced By a process analogous to photography; lantern slides;
 * 12) Audiovisual works and cinematographic works produced by a Process analogous to cinematography or any process for making audio-Visual recordings;
 * 13) Pictorial illustrations and advertisement
 * 14) Computer programs; and
 * 15) Other literary, scholarly, scientific and artistic works.

Copyrighted photographs are protected for 50 years after publication.

You need pre-approval to publish photos by the Philippine government if you have any intention of using the photos commercially: From the Republic Act 8293, section 176:
 * "No copyright shall subsist in any work of the Government of the Philippines. However, prior approval of the government agency or office wherein the work is created shall be necessary for exploitation of such work for profit. Such agency or office may, among other things, impose as a condition the payment of royalties. No prior approval or conditions shall be required for the use for any purpose of statutes, rules and regulations, and speeches, lectures, sermons, addresses, and dissertations, pronounced, read or rendered in courts of justice, before administrative agencies, in deliberative assemblies and in meetings of public character. (Sec. 9, first par., P.D. No. 49)"

Since government pre-approval is necessary to use photos commercially, this means that photos created by the government of the Philippines are not public domain, in the sense the word is used in the article "public domain". Thuresson 23:44, 16 June 2006 (UTC)


 * There is an appropriate discussion on Tambayan Philippines/Archive 3, since this issue was brought up before about government copyright. The interpretation, I presume at the time I made the template and even up to today, is that the provisions in Philippine copyright law pertaining to this would apply in the sense that since Wikipedia is non-profit, and that we are not exploiting the content for profit, that it would count as being in the public domain.  --Akira123323 Say what? Track record 00:19, 17 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks. As I mentioned, this question came up on Wikicommons where all photos must be available for commercial use and I think this template should mention that pre-approval is necessary for commercial use of images, since many users copy photos from English Wikipedia to WikiCommons. Thuresson 01:50, 17 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I will have to find a way to rewrite the template to maintain its integrity, since I do fear that if non-commercial and non-profit commercial use only provisions are applied, it would result in misclassification of the template as non-free. In turn that would be disasterous, since many Philippine articles, including one featured article, have pictures bearing this license.  If you do have a suitable rewrite for the license's text, feel free to edit the template as needed.  --Akira123323 Say what? Track record 17:26, 17 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Are logos of public schools in the Philippines not copyrighted? --Howard t he Du c k 08:56, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Interpretation of public domain
I modified the template to make the point that these images are indeed still in the public domain per Section 176 of the IPCP. However, while the government may lobby for proprietary rights to their works (something which I believe contradicts that section), it should still be noted that these images can be used under the Philippine and U.S. fair use doctrines (Philippine at time of uploading, both Philippine and U.S. at time of storage, in my opinion). To make a point of section 176, which is a carry-over from the Marcos-era Presidential Decree No. 49:


 * No copyright shall subsist in any work of the Government of the Philippines. However, prior approval of the government agency or office wherein the work is created shall be necessary for exploitation of such work for profit. Such agency or office may, among other things, impose as a condition the payment of royalties. No prior approval or conditions shall be required for the use for any purpose of statutes, rules and regulations, and speeches, lectures, sermons, addresses, and dissertations, pronounced, read or rendered in courts of justice, before administrative agencies, in deliberative assemblies and in meetings of public character. (Sec. 9, first par., P.D. No. 49)

Some other forms of Philippine government works, largely spoken and written works, are completely in the public domain. However, they may be compiled exclusively by the person who has actually done said things.

The new template now is this:

Let's see now if that works. -- Sky Harbor 05:27, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

licence -> license. Thanks. -- Howard  the   Duck  04:00, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 04:24, 16 February 2007 (UTC)