High Court punishes restaurant for playing copyrighted music in public

THE FILIPINO Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Inc. (Filscap) may seek payment from private establishments that play copyrighted music under its catalog of works without its permission, the Supreme Court ruled.

In a decision dated Feb. 28 and made public on July 28, the tribunal found COSAC, Inc., the company that operates Off the Grill Bar and Restaurant, liable for copyright infringement after it played copyrighted music at the restaurant and allowed a live band to play songs without securing a Filscap license.

It was ordered to pay damages worth P300,000 to Filscap.

“Although it seems trivial or outrageous to collect fees for this purpose especially when almost everything is readily accessible to the listening public, the copyright owners are still entitled to be compensated for their creative work,” Associate Justice Ramon Paul L. Hernando said in the ruling.

“Assigning Filscap to pursue their intellectual property rights on their behalf should not be taken against Filscap as it is acting not merely for its own benefit, but for the copyright owners as well.”

Filscap is a government-accredited nonprofit management organization for musicians and copyright owners that license the public playing, broadcasting and streaming in the Philippines of copyrighted local and foreign songs.

The High Court said COSAC had “unduly enriched itself” for profit when it allowed copyrighted songs to be played without first securing permission from the copyright owners.

COSAC argued that Filscap should have published its list of copyrighted works in the Intellectual Property Office Gazette to inform the public of its authority.

The tribunal disagreed, saying the organization had provided a copy of the catalog of its copyrighted works to the National Library, which the court said is available to the public.

“Still, Filscap’s monitoring, licensing and its other functions should all be exercised within reasonable, proper and just means,” the court said. — John Victor D. Ordoñez