Who is this Guy Kidding?

Just like my post less than two months ago about the whole Paul Bowers fiasco, here comes another similar incident involving Gail Dela Cruz, a Filipino web designer whose web template was stolen by a creep named Al Sembrano.

Here’s a summary. Sembrano hires Dela Cruz to design a book cover and website for him for which Dela Cruz was paid an undisclosed amount. Sembrano decides that he only liked the book cover and not the website so he demands a refund for that part which Dela Cruz gave back. But in a spectacular heist, Sembrano asks a different programmer to take the website design he “rejected” and use it anyway for not one, but two of his websites.

Dela Cruz had made at least two blog entries on her predicament, which sent Sembrano fuming. Several threatening text messages were published by Dela Cruz that were purportedly sent to her by Sembrano, who basically said that he’ll be filing charges against her in a few days. What really is funny is how stupid Sembrano is that he thinks he actually has a case against her. Why he calls it “defamation” is beyond me. You see, defamation here in the Philippines means a public and vocal defamation of a person. If you defame someone in writing, on radio or television, the right term is libel. But, Dela Cruz’s blog posts hardly make anything for libel. In fact, it is she who should make the first move and sue this guy’s arse for intellectual property infringement. All she has to do is hire some good lawyers and file a complaint affidavit with the City Prosecutor. I heard that Castillo Laman Tan Pantaleon & San Jose is an excellent IP enforcement law firm.

Hopefully Gail’s case can be resolved as soon as possible. I can just imagine what she’s going through. I can only wish that if our beloved tech writer Erwin Oliva is approached by Sembrano to write a full article about his petty life, he won’t call Gail a ripoff and take another shot at our outsourcing industry.

On the web: What is Intellectual Property?

Shoutout to my legal expert Paolo.