PAL Photo Contest: Another copyright infringement?

I have gotten tired of commenting on photo contests, which are, allegedly, violating the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.

But then, here is another one brandishing its audacity in the midst of Filipino photographers who are fighting for intellectual property rights.  This is happening despite the fact that they hired a professional photographer, affiliated with the Camera Club of the Philippines.  Later on, they stripped off the "Camera Club of the Philippines" and replaced the tag "advertising and travel photographer" to the commissioned photographer, Bien Bautista, who seemed to have forgotten about the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.  The CCP must have been seething in anger that they have been dragged into this brouhaha.

While the contest rules protect PAL from infringement of intellectual property rights as mentioned in Rule No. 10, it does not take into consideration the intellectual property rights of the photographer in Rule No. 16 which mentions that: (click photo on the left for bigger view).

"By entering the contest and submitting his/her entry/ies, each participant agrees and acknowledges that PAL is permitted to receive the photograph or image entry/ies, and that he/she transfers and turns over to Philippine Airlines the full ownership of the copyright to the photos or images."

Unless, this is a commissioned work, full copyright can be transferred to PAL where the photographer would just have to sign a waiver.  But this is not a commissioned work.  Period.

I am sure, I am not a lone amateur photographer who is against or disappointed with this contest.

The prizes are equally disappointing, despite the fact that they are giving away round-trip tickets to LA, Brisbane, and Hong Kong!  If somebody wins, he or she has to deal with securing a US Visa and Australian Visa, not mentioning the transportation and travel allowance just so one can "enjoy" the prizes.

Good luck to those who can afford to lose their copyrights and fall prey to the seemingly exciting prizes!

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A people's victory

I have been wanting to create a video of my photo documentaries. Last Friday night, I tried to learn more about Olympus Studio 2 software which came as a bundle with my camera, which I haven't used for so long. I was more bent on using Adobe Photoshop CS3 for photo editing.

I came to realize I could actually do time lapse tethered shooting with Olympus Studio 2 and make it into a movie. I tried it for 50 photos inside the house under poor lighting conditions, and I was so excited with the result even with poor quality photos, that I might do a time lapse photography one of these days, if time permits. So, I tried to make the time lapse photos into a movie with Windows Movie Maker but I could not figure out how to set the intervals into 1/16 second or less. So I tried it with Picasa 3, which is a freeware in Google, and it has a function for time lapse.

Back to this video, I wanted to share the inauguration photos without me worrying of my photos landing in the hands of crooks,and of course to share the photos in a way it can be more appreciated. So here it is, trying hard in weaving a story out of the photos, editing and musical scoring.

Needless to say, I am a frustrated film director.

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What now, Filipinos?

So, the automated election fever took us by surprise!  Filipinos was in awe how fast can we determine the next leader of the country.  Of course, there were fears and premonitions of cheating--the hi-tech way and the electoral protest for the position of Vice President is still much alive.

The country has just inaugurated its Number 1 "employee" [as the President, himself, calls the Filipino people as his "boss"].

Witnessing the inaugural last June 30 was, for me, a privilege.  People across ages and class, and even different nationalities came in droves to witness this historic event.  It is important, not only because the President and the Vice President were sworn into office. Being the "boss" of President Benigno C. Aquino III, the Filipino people also took their oath as "employers".

The message was clear, and everyone needs CHANGE, and everyone needs to be PART of that CHANGE. Thus, I am sharing a photo of the copy of the "Panata sa Pagbabago" that everyone recited towards the end of the inaugural program. It is my fervent wish that this would take root in our hearts.

The Filipinos are pinning so much hope on the leadership--hoping that the President and his technocrats can solve the country's problem in 6 years. Six (6) years is but a short period.  Needless to say, we are again at the crossroads of re-building the nation.

Without moralizing, let us all join hands in making the nation great again. After all, as "employers" of the President, we have that accountability too.

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2010 Election List of Candidates

Barely two weeks before the elections, have you decided who will you vote?  Do you know your presidentiables, vice presidentiables and senatoriables?  The candidates to three key positions may be easy to remember, but hey!  There are new faces and names in the senatoriable line up.  It may be worthy to check them out!

Moreover, although we only need to choose one (1) PartyList, but there are 187 candidates to choose from.

So you want to make a list before you go to the precinct booth? Check these documents which I downloaded from the COMELEC Website.

Choose wisely!

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Presidentiables

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2010 Earth Hour Pilipinas and Photo/Video Contest

LAST YEAR, my kids and their cousins participated in observing Earth Hour. This year, my family will be participating again!

This year Earth Hour Philippines aims for the participation of over 15 Million Filipinos in over 1000 towns and cities nationwide. Globally, 807 cities, towns and cities in 82 countries across every continent have already signed up. (Source: Earth Hour Pilipinas. )

This year, the Philippines must take Earth Hour seriously, now that we are ravaged by El Niño phenomenon.

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WWD 2010: Clean Water for a Healthy World

Today, March 22, 2010, is world water day!  On the side of this planet, it is a few hours away to March 23.  But then, better late than never expressing my opinion on this issue.

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