‘Cause I-I-I’m in the stars tonight
So watch me bring the fire and set the night alight.
IF YOU are an ARMY, and even if you are not, you definitely know where you heard the words mentioned above.
These words are the lyrics of an upbeat disco-pop song “Dynamite.” It is a historic KPop group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) song that topped the Billboard chart last year. It is a song of “joy and confidence, bringing a new surge of ‘energy’ to cheer the world during these challenging times.”
It’s one of the songs I play on loop when driving. It sets out happiness and positivity when starting or ending a hectic day.
In November 2020, BigHit Entertainment initially released the “Deluxe Version” of “BE” – a BTS album which includes “Dynamite” in its track. I am excited to know that there will be a new edition to be dropped this February. This edition is titled “Essential Edition.”
What I am trying to say is that this group has made an impact to the world. The Bangtan Boys influenced how people think and feel about life thru their songs. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of people with malicious motives who tried to steal their identity and, most of all, their music.
While going through their albums and a list of news articles, I came across a report about two Filipino artists allegedly plagiarizing one of the songs of BTS.
In the dictionary, plagiarism means the process or practice of using another person’s idea or work and pretending that it is your own. It also means stealing an idea or work of others without giving credit.
In the Philippines, we have a copyright infringement law. The law that governs it is Republic Act (RA) No. 8293, as amended by RA 10372. It is a legal protection extended to the owner of the rights in an original work. It grants the owner protection for their literary and artistic creations from the moment they create it.
Examples of these include musical compositions, with or without words, audiovisual works and cinematographic works and works produced by a process analogous to cinematography or any process for making audio-visual recordings.
It should be noted that plagiarism and copyright are different from each other.
Plagiarism is the deliberate and knowing presentation of another person’s original ideas or creative expressions as one’s own. It is an ethical issue because it involves injury to a person’s reputation. It is mostly an administrative matter or disciplinary actions.
On the other hand, copyright constitute infringement and that the value of the original is diminished and may constitute piracy. It always gives rise to criminal or civil action and may result to damages.
A friend who was once part of a production team said that in music there are two contexts that may be plagiarized. First is the musical idea which refers to the melody and the other one is the sampling which takes a portion of one sound recording and used it in a different song.
It is best to avoid these practices. A person or group should identify the copyright holder or owner of a certain creation and request permission for all the specific purposes intended.
Of course, plagiarism is not new in the music industry. Even Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande also have their fair share in this plagiarism issue. The issue mentioned above is not new to BTS, too, for it faced a lot of the same old stories.
Every artist is more than just a typical one. They bring a higher level of passion and hard work on their creations and works. They deserve to be recognized and respected.
And one of the strongest fandom is called ARMY. It is organized for a reason – to protect BTS. Seriously, nothing gets past the ARMY. Not Today.
If you badly want something you have to put in the effort and avoid too much free time and stealing other people’s work. As the lyrics of “Dope” says: “I worked all night, every day, while you were out clubbing.”
What do you say?/PN
