The book publishing business reported P3.6 billion losses in 2020 thanks to illegal downloading and photocopying not to mention the shift to digital learning.
The book industry’s average revenue prior to the new coronavirus disease 2019 was P6 billion per year.
Alvin Buenaventura, executive director of Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS) said one of the challenges the group currently faces is the low regard for the rights of authors.
FILCOLS said the Department of Education (DepEd), citing the pandemic in 2020, has not yet decided to take a license for the large-scale reuse of works for its blended learning strategy despite the additional budgets from the government.
“If DepEd will not sign an agreement with FILCOLS, we estimate a loss of P240 million, for a license fee of P10 for 24 million students,” Buenaventura said.
Buenaventura said the DepEd received an additional budget of P4.3 billion from the Bayanihan but allotted only P150 million for self-learning modules.
“We’re still negotiating if they can give and provide for copyright license,” he added
Buenaventura said Department Order 18, s. 2020 which directed teachers to produce learning materials and modules for students is tantamount to unfair use.
“This department order resulted in market failure and loss of income for our authors and publishers,” he added, and cited estimates by a known publishing house that the industry lost up to 60 percent revenue due to the COVID-inspired department order.
