Home » Archives » March 2006

Ver Pena resigns as CICT Chair

March 31, 2006

I am personally shocked that Ver Pena has stepped down as CICT Chair (see INQ7 story).  Taking stock at what has been achieved in the last 5 years, I guess you can say it centers around organizing the CICT and managing the first e-government fund. Good luck on your future endeavors, Chairman Pena!

I wonder who’ll take his place.  Time to get on the vine for the latest scuttlebutt.   

Posted by JJ Disini at 6:53 am | permalink | comments[2]

The 2005 Bar Results

The nailbiting, constant praying and serious anxiety have all given way to either cheers or tears.  At around 8PM last night, the Supreme Court released the results of the 2005 Bar Examinations.  A student of mine, Joan De Venecia (a niece of the Speaker of the House) topped the bar dispelling a long-held view that UP Law valedictorians are cursed never to top this most watched professional exam in these islands — a strange phenomenon since we should actually honor engineers, entrepreneurs and technical people, who create value, more than lawyers, who merely reallocate value.

A colleague of mine in the faculty confided to me that he had a reliable barometer in predicting who will not top the bar — those who hang out at the college during bar review.   I guess the theory goes, time spent in the college is time taken away from studying. This prompted me to tell Ms. De Venecia on numerous occasions to “get lost.”  She always gamefully agreed but never complied.  While debunking an obviously flawed theory, I’m glad she held up the time-honored tradition of UP topnotchers having unflattering photos in the newspapers. 
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Posted by JJ Disini at 6:47 am | permalink | comments[2]

Intellectual Property and the NTC

March 29, 2006

The law is clear in that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is not the proper forum to enforce Intellectual Property rights.  IP rightsholders should go to the courts, the police, the NBI, or the Intellectual Property Office.  For its part, the NTC is supposed to regulate the infrastructure not the content that flows within it.   Its job is to ensure that scarce State resources like radio frequencies are efficientlly allocated.  Moreover, the NTC also ensures that public services are made available by balancing the public interest and the economic interests of the service providers.  The is the extent of its mandate.  There is nothing in the law that vests the NTC with IP rights enforcement.

So, it’s irritating to see CASBAA put pressure on the NTC to curb cable piracy (see the INQ7 report).  The NTC responds (correctly) that it has no jurisdiction over IP matters.  Fair enough.  But the more problematic response is this part of the report:

In a text message to INQ7.net, Sarmiento said that the NTC is drafting an agreement with the Intellectual Property Office to address the “issue of jurisdiction.”

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Posted by JJ Disini at 8:17 am | permalink | comments[1]

One Way to Avoid Ruling on PP 1017

March 7, 2006

Today, legal luminaries will face off at the Supreme Court which will hear arguments for and against the Constitutionality of PP1017. 
In a nutsell, those in favor of upholding PP1017 will ask the Court to consider that the State of National Emergency has been lifted rendering the matter moot and academic.  On the other hand, those against this proposition hold that PP1017 violates the Constitution not because of its language per se but in the manner by which it was applied (i.e., the Randy David arrest, the Tribune raid, the KBP guidelines).

Since the Court is composed of GMA appointees (or at least 10 out of 15, including the Chief Justice),  I believe they would rather avoid the issue altogether without rendering an opinion.  This way, they can’t be said to have ruled in her favor.  A ruling which says the matter is moot and academic may not hold water given recent media reports speaking of continuing media regulation and the arrest of GMA critics.  It just doesn’t hold water.

 So, I have an alternate solution.
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Posted by JJ Disini at 8:50 am | permalink | comments[2]

Significant VOIP Ruling

Businessworld reports that PLDT lost its Supreme Court case where it tried to float the idea that so-called “International Simple Resale” (ISR) constituted the crime of “theft” of telephone calls and/or PLDT’s business. 

This is a significant blow to PLDT’s efforts to stop third parties from routing calls over the Internet into its local exchanges.  In simple terms, this means the ability to have someone abroad place a call that is sent over the Internet but is received on an ordinary telephone in the Philippines.  Since the Internet calls don’t go through PLDT’s international circuits, they’re much cheaper for the caller in the foreign countries. 
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Posted by JJ Disini at 8:24 am | permalink | comments[12]