Name: GUZMAN, Jomar C.

Section: ARTS 1 B1
Student Number & SAIS ID: 2015-65181, 10070605 

The Culture of Independent and Self-Publishing

How does the lawsuit against David touch upon issues on copyright, established publishing
houses,
appropriation, and independent publishing?

To give a brief context on the issue provided, Adam David, a writer, has to remove a piece of his
work online as he has recived allegations of copy right infringement from writers Noelle de
Jesus, Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta, and Publisng Anvil. He was charged with copyright due to his
work on online publication entitled It will be the same/but not quite the same where, according to
sources, he took portions of for his own publications. What makes matters worse is that it is said
that David claimed it as his own copyrighted material for year 2015. On his defense, David
stated that his work is a critic or literacy critcism of that produced by de Jesus, and Mookie. He
explained how his project was constructed and how the copying of such word portions is part of
his work. This issue produces different feebacks and reactions from different literacy
communities. Many express their support to David, while others criticize his wrong doings. This
paper will analize the above problem in terms of how copyright is depicted, what are roles of
established pulishing houses, how appropriation affects these problems and what is independent
publishing in relation with copyrights.

Copyright infrigement is simply defined as an act of using a copyrighted material or sources

without owner’s consent. In this issue, copyright infringement is the allegations placed upon
Adam David by the authors and Avil publishing. I think it is till consider as copyright as
copyright is specifically defined as the usage of resources without proper consent from the
owners which arccording the the sources that David said that he did copy a few sentences. If I
were to consider this starment, it would have been better of if he would cite through
paraphrasing. Although in terms of the justification of Karl de Mesa and Adrian Dollente
Mendizabal using the Section 185 of Republic Act 10372, which states that the usage of a
copyrighted work for criticism, comment, and many other works related to or include in limited
number of copies for classroom use, research, and similar related works is not an infringement of
copyright. So, in a sense, it is not totally on grounds of copyright infringement. While
established publish houses such as Avil have rights to the material published hence they still
have a say in the matter especially if the work is being claimed by others as their own.
Independent publishing is one of the two kinds of publishing. Independent publishers work as an
individual as compared with larger corporations. As an independent publisher, Adam David
could publish his own works faster and label it as his own. I think in this case, it is easier to be
idenfied as copyright since is done as individual. In this case, I think Adam David is accused of
appropriation in this case since it deals on the taking others works and incorpotate is in his own
works.

In conclusion, in the article, Butch Dalisay stated that the publishing house and authors have
every right to sue David for his acts but is in not a big deal for someone to mention similar
works. One of the idles of this idea is that if the person earns less or none from the act of piracy,
it is tending to be overlooked since not much money is benefited in the process. Lastly, the
article ended with this line from Gina Apostol, that “…But just because one can sue does not
mean one should.” I think it shows that both sides of the story should first be examined first to
see the bigger picture.

References:

Angeles, B. M. (1970, January 1). Literary ‘war’ over Adam David poetry project | Lifestyle |.
GMA News Online.
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/content/481338/literary-war-over-adam-
david-poetry-project/story/

Nutrition Facts: Always Look at the Label - a microreview of Anvil Publishing's FAST FOOD
FICTION DELIVERY edited by Noelle Q. De Jesus and Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta.
(n.d.). Blogspot. https://wasaaak.blogspot.com/2015/03/nutrition-facts-always-look-at-
label.html