New Org Eyes Holding Taste of Manila 2022

 Volume 3, Issue No. 42

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .

 

 Our latest as of Monday, April 11, 2022 

~ The clarity I was seeking got murkier as one of the supposedly "leading lights" of this newly-established not-for-profit organization almost choked in the nonsense that flowed out of his mouth yesterday (Sunday, April 10) at a press conference local media practically boycotted. The white knight of lonesome Filipino caregivers spouted his views on copyright and defended the act of stealing intellectual property. 

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AN IGNORAMUS' GEM

The Twisted Logic of a Taste of Manila Official

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"The person who admits ignorance shows it once; the one who tries to hide it shows it often". - Proverb

TORONTO - All I wanted was to get some clarity from the organization and people who have taken the liberty of snapping up film footage of my videos of the Taste of Manila street festival, replaced the watermark with their logo, and made it appear the patched-up visuals were their original.

Instead of what I had hoped for, I was given the weird and twisted logic of one whose frame of mind goes beyond the pale of the law and ethics professional journalists exercised in the practice of their craft.

Certainly, whatever doubts I had entertained about some individuals belonging to this newly-surfaced not-for-profit organization quickly vanished the very moment they opened their mouths and spoke the same tune I had expected them to say.

But this one from a so-called podcaster beats them all. "The Taste of Manila who owns the Taste of Manila owns any videos that have been shown . . . YouTube, Facebook, and any other application," says Ramon "Mon" Datol at a press conference on Sunday, April 10, 2022, at the Top Silog restaurant on Bathurst St. near Wilson Ave.

Asked why his group stole film footage from my videos, his response was murkier than the statement that preceded it. He states: "You won't have your videos if there is no Taste of Manila. You did not ask Taste of Manila founder and the president to have videos on that". (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).

Therefore, he stressed, I can not claim copyright for everything I did during my coverage of the street festival since it started in August 2014 until it went bankrupt and finally folded at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. (Video at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aOgDtLd6ec ).

Of course, given his background as a former promoter of the "Anghel ng Tahanan" beauty contest (or was it Ilaw ng Kusina?) targetting lonesome Filipino caregivers, Datol's statements are not to be taken seriously. Besides, he is no legal mind, to begin with.

I affirm here and now, and continue to affirm, that Datol's group - including Rolly Mangante, the former driver of the Philippine Consulate and self-declared founder of Taste of Manila; Cecille Araneta, the alleged head of a not-for-profit group; Danna Luna aka Lovely, Pepito Torralba, and others - had usurped footage from my videos without my knowledge and permission.

I do insist that his group could do any of these things to settle this controversy: 1. Takedown their video containing my footage; 2. Credit the footage to me and my Filipino Web Channel as the source; 3. Pay up for the unauthorized usage; 4. Acknowledge their mistake and apologize.

I am the creator of at least 50 videos about Taste of Manila festival. The most number - thirteen (13) - was in August 2016 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne were the guests of honor. (Videos at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWQr7tlg5pk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjRO6DXgNc ).

It's so absurd, or moronic as Datol might prefer to say, to imagine asking Rolly Mangante for permission every time I want to shoot a video during the festival while the top official of Canada and Ontario were being mobbed by a huge crowd for selfies and autographs.

What about the mainstream press, like broadcasters CTV News, CBC, and the hundreds of revelers who were shooting for their respective Facebook accounts? Did they have to ask Mangante's permission?

That's essentially the practical meaning of Datol's asinine assertions on the question of my copyright claim on the film footage they stole. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ).

As the creator of the videos and author of the articles and text messages accompanying them, I am also the first owner. I have the economic rights and the moral right to those intellectual properties, not Taste of Manila, not Rolly Mangante, not Ramon Datol, not Cecille Araneta, not Danna Luna, not Pepito Torralba, and not their unidentified cohorts.

Datol's protestations and his dense understanding of copyrights would render Canada's copyright law meaningless. He might be pardoned for his ignorance but to say it out loud as he did is truly worthy of derision.

But who is Datol in the local media scene? Well, I remember very well how he reacted to a story years ago where he advocated declaring a Philippine labor official "persona non grata" for allegedly tagging him and another person "morons". (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/03/media-uproar-in-toronto-over-word-moron.html)

From time to time, Datol spews what I call an ignoramus' gem. He may be good at baiting unsuspecting Filipino caregivers to be household queens but he's no fountain of wisdom.

"We have to cut short your questioning. If you want to complain, complain to the proper authorities x x x we cannot entertain any more questions that put us in a bad light," he declares, dodging the very issue that triggers the question of why this proposed new Taste of Manila should not be trusted.

If the organizers could brazenly steal intellectual property and deny it, what more of the monies that sponsors unknowingly hand to them in good faith? (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).