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GMA Kapuso Foundation Answers Gary Granada’s Accusation

Folk singer and songwriter Gary Granada is accusing GMA Kapuso Foundation of stealing his original idea.

In an email from a certain “dirty bubles” entitled Gary Granada VS GMA Kapuso, there’s a link to an audio file where Gary Granada himself explains how GMA Kapuso Foundation in partnership with multinational company Procter & Gamble asked him to write and arrange a jingle for the “Tripid Handog Edukasyon” campaign. But his final study was rejected by the foundation, only to find out that last December it was aired on the airwaves purportedly done by a different composer.

Here’s the link for the said audio file. You can listen and compare the original study submitted by Gary Granada and to the one being aired on radio.

The GMA Kapuso Foundation, on the other hand, released an official statement denying the accusations of Gary Granada:

“Mr. Granada claims that the lyrics used for the plug is his version. We dispute that. GMA Marketing provided Mr. Granada the complete lyrics for the music he was supposed to compose. He changed a word in these lyrics. With due respect to Mr. Granda, that does not make the lyrics, under copyright law, his version or his work.

“Certainly, Mr. Granada cannot claim sole authorship of the lyrics because he himself admits that GMA provided the lyrics and that he ‘rewrote’ portions of it, which means that he admits as well the authorship of the lyrics by GMA Marketing.

“Neither can he claim joint authorship of the lyrics. There is joint authorship when two requisites concur: (1) there must be an intention between the parties to be joint authors at the time the work was created, and (2) the contributions to the work of the party claiming to be a joint author must be independently copyrightable (see Erickson v. Trinity Theatre Inc, 13 F. 3d 1106[1994]).

“It is clear that the first requisite is lacking. For a work to be considered a “joint work,” two or more persons must collaborate with the intent to create a unitary work. In this case, Mr. Granada was engaged by GMA Marketing to write the music to the lyrics that had already been completed by GMA. Neither GMA Marketing nor Mr. Granada intended to be joint authors of the lyrics.

“The second requisite is also clearly absent. The changes to the GMA lyrics, whether all or some of them originated from Mr. Granada, are mere ideas, or refinements to it. In the case cited, it was held that ideas, refinements, and suggestions, standing alone, are not independently copyrightable.”

Gary Granada is a former Gospel singer/songwriter who is now in mainstream writing commercial jingles. He is known for the songs “Pag Nanalo ang Ginebra,” “Yan ang Aming Barangay” and the Metro Pop winning song “Mabuti Pa Sila.”

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