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[ PROCLAMATION NO. 99, October 21, 1948 ]

DESIGNATING OCTOBER 2-1, 1948, AS UNITED NATIONS DAY EXTENDING COPYRIGHT PRIVILEGES AND PROTECTION TO CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES

WHEREAS, it is provided by an Act of the Philippine Legislature, Act No. 8134, entitled “An Act to protect intellectual property,” otherwise known as the Copyright Law of the Philippines, approved March 6, 1924, as amended by Republic Act No. 76, approved October 21, 1946, that the copyright secured by the Act shall extend to the work of a proprietor, who is not a citizen of the Philippines, only upon certain conditions set forth in section 10 of the Act, to wit:

“(a) When an alien proprietor shall be domiciled within the Philippine Islands at the time he makes application for copyright; or

“(b) When the foreign state or nation of which such proprietor is a citizen or subject grants, either by treaty, convention, agreement, or law, to citizens of (the United States or of) the Philippine Islands the benefit of copyright protection substantially equal to the protection secured to such foreign proprietor under this Act; or

“(c) When such foreign state or nation is a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright and that (the United States or) the Philippine Islands moy become a party thereto.”

WHEREAS, the Act of Congress, approved July 30, 1947, (61 Stat. 652) entitled “An Act to Codify and Enact into Positive Law Title 17 of the United States Code, entitled ‘Copyright'”, provides that the copyright secured by the said Act and the benefits under section 1 (e) thereof, as to which special conditions are imposed, shall extend to the work of an author or proprietor who is a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation, only upon certain conditions set forth in section 9 of the Act, to wit:

“(a) When an alien author or proprietor shall be domiciled within the United States at the time of the first publication of his work; or

“(b) When the foreign state or nation of which such author or proprietor is a citizen or stibject grants, either by treaty, convention, agreement, or law, to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to its own citizens, or copyright protection, substantially equal to the protection secured to such foreign author under this title or by treaty; or when such foreign state or nation is a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United States may, at its pleasure, become a party thereto.”

WHEREAS, satisfactory official assurances have been received that, on and after October 21, 1948, pursuant to the aforementioned Act of Congress, approved July 30, 1947, (61 Stat. 652), citizens of the Philippines are entitled to obtain copyright protection for their works in the United States which is substantially equal to the protection afforded by the copyright laws of the Philippines and which is afforded on substantially the same basis as to the citizens of the United States;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines, do hereby declare and proclaim;

That on and after October 21, 1948, the conditions specified in section 10 (b) of the aforementioned Act No. 3134 of the Philippine Legislature of March 6, 1924, do exist and are fulfilled in respect of the citizens of the United States and that on and after October 21, 1948, citizens of the United States shall be entitled to all the benefits of the said Act;

Provided, That the enjoyment by any work of the rights and benefits conferred by the said Act shall be conditional upon compliance with the requirements and formalities prescribed with respect to such works by the copyright laws of the Philippines.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 21st day of October, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the third.

ELPIDIO QUIRINO
President of the Philippines

By the President:
TEODORO EVANGELISTA
Executive Secretary