G.R. No. 184661 , February 25, 2025
FILIPINO SOCIETY OF COMPOSERS AND PUBLISHERS, PETITIONER, VS. WOLFPAC COMMUNICATIONS, INC., RESPONDENT.

FACTS

Petitioner Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, Inc. (FILSCAP) filed a copyright infringement complaint against respondent Wolfpac Communications, Inc. (Wolfpac). Wolfpac offered “ringback tones” for mobile phones for sale on a website. In the course of this offering, Wolfpac allowed prospective purchasers to listen to 20-second portions of each ringback tone as a “pre-listening function” prior to a sale. FILSCAP alleged this act infringed on copyrights. The Regional Trial Court dismissed FILSCAP’s complaint. The case is a Petition for Review on Certiorari assailing that dismissal.

ISSUE

Whether Wolfpac’s act of allowing potential consumers to preview 20-second portions of ringback tones via a “pre-listening function” on its website constitutes copyright infringement, specifically an unauthorized exercise of the communication to the public right, given the terms of its memoranda of agreement with the composers.

RULING

The Separate Concurring Opinion concurs with the main decision’s differentiation between public performance and communication to the public rights, as modified by prior jurisprudence. It agrees that Wolfpac’s acts were exercises of the communication to the public right over the musical works, and not the public performance right. The opinion explains that Wolfpac’s act of placing the pre-listening function on its website makes the musical work available to the public through the internet, satisfying the first aspect of communication to the public. The musical work becomes audible when a potential consumer clicks the play button, which constitutes the second aspect, as any member of the public can access the samples from a place and time individually chosen by them. The performance that occurs when a consumer plays the sample is done by the consumer privately, not by Wolfpac, and is therefore not an actionable public performance.
The opinion further concurs with the main decision’s finding that the pre-listening function was outside the scope of the memoranda of agreement between Wolfpac and the FILSCAP member-composers. The agreements authorized Wolfpac “to convert [the musical works] into a form which can be downloaded” and “to offer and sell the same to the general public.” The opinion notes that while advertisements are a way to offer the ringback tones, the agreement does not expressly allow the use of the songs in marketing the ringtones. Therefore, the use of the musical works for the pre-listening function was not authorized by the agreements.