News peg: “The chief of staff of Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III finally admitted that parts of his speech against the RH bill on Wednesday, August 15, were copied from a blog by a foreign author who calls herself the “Healthy Home Economist”.

      “Lawyer Hector A. Villacorta, Sotto’s chief of staff, wrote Sarah Pope a response in the comments section of her blog in which he said: ” `I understand you felt slighted that your blog was not attributed to you which became part of the speech of the senator.’ ” (rappler.com)

      The following provisions of the Intellectual Property Code may be relevant to the right of the author to require that his/her work be attributed to him/her: 

      “Chapter X. Moral Rights. Section 193. Scope of Moral Rights. – The author of a work shall, independently of the economic rights in Section 177 or the grant of an assignment or license with respect to such right, have the right:

     “193.1.     To require that the authorship of the works be attributed to him, in particular, the right that his name, as far as practicable, be indicated in a prominent way on the copies, and in connection with the public use of his work;

       “193.2.   To make any alterations of his work prior to, or to withhold it from publication;

        “193.3.  To object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, his work which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation; and

         “193.4. To restrain the use of his name with respect to any work not of his own creation or in a distorted version of his work. (Sec. 34, P.D. No. 49)”