I initially didn’t want to do this, but I think being an advocate of responsible content creation, I need to share this.
Tita Krissy Achino used the lyrics I wrote in a parody video with Ninong Ry and Ben&Ben without giving any form of a credit to me.
When I first saw the video, in all honesty, I enjoyed it. I was thrilled that something I wrote became part of viral and fun-filled content, much more with Ben&Ben on it, a group we all admire and look up to. As of this time, it has already 3M views on Facebook, 58K on Youtube)
But I was questioning why there was no credit at all to the source of the lyrics.
I want to believe it is an honest mistake.
I posted the lyrics as a comment to a Facebook post of Ben&Ben, on August 8th – when they hinted to do this collaboration. They surely picked it up from there. That comment is not hard to notice because it was the most popular comment with 317 engagements.
To be fair, they did not ask anyone to submit lyrics. It’s all just for fun for me. I wrote the parody more than a year ago already and I wanted to share it with whoever could produce or perform a parody. (I even sent it to Michael V.)
If they ignore, fine. If they use it, great. And the least I’m expecting is just a mention of who wrote the lyrics – out of courtesy, and ethics. I’m not asking for any ‘legal’ recognition. I’m just requesting a little courtesy, so you could also set an example for people who follow you.
But there was none. Their audience must be thinking how genius their idea of a parody is.
I was adamant to call this out, because “it was just a parody” I thought. It’s all derived from the original works of Ben&Ben. But then again, it still involves a thought process, time, and effort. Hindi namin niluluwa ang bawat salita. Pinaghihirapan yun.
Imagine, I was inspired writing it, felt ecstatic it when I first heard they used it, but felt shattered when I found that not even a simple recognition was given.
I reach out
I saw the video yesterday – more than 24 hours already as of this writing. I thought of contacting them first, and let’s see if they respond.
So I reached out to my friends in the media for advice. I sent Ben&Ben a message to their Instagram, but as expected, they did not reply. I also sent Ninong Ry a message. He was the only one who replied and had a really good conversation with me.
He replied, “Paps actually kay Tita Krissy ko nalaman ung lyrics. Sorry brader. Imemention ko to kay chino paps salamat and pasensya na.”
“Minessage ko si Tita Krissy. I suggest message mo din siya.”
I did sent a message to Krissy, and got no reply. Twice.
Ninong Ry, asked me to send a message again, “Message mo lang ulit paps para umangat.”
“Pasensya na ulit. Di ko naman alam na may ganto pala. Nung nilatag nila sakin yung balak sa vlog, nag go lang ako not knowing na may ganto palang complication.”
“Kung alam ko lang paps sinabihan ko sana sila agad.”
He ended our chat with, “Sana mag reply siya. Ayoko din naman siyang kulitin about this kasi nasabihan ko na naman siya.”
Thank you Ninong Ry, and I appreciate a lot how you help me reach Tita Krissy.
Why am I sharing this?
I’m aware this might look like me trying to ride on, but the main reason I’m writing this is to prevent this from becoming another precedent – that people of big influence could comfortably walk away from these – and poor bloggers/writers like us are ignored. Whether the video has raked million views or 10 views, I would still do the same.
This is not about me, because this could happen to you.
This is a call to be more responsible about our content. As a content creator myself, I’m very particular about giving credit where credit is due. As a writer, I’ve been a victim of plagiarism many times in the past. I called out and settled well with a few of them. This has to stop. People of positive influence should lead the voice on this and not connive with the practice.
Tita Krissy, how can the public trust that all you put out there were originally made by you wherein you cannot do a simple attribute to the source?
To Ben&Ben and Ninong Ry, please, on your next collab, check on the ethics of whoever you are collaborating with. I’m sure you don’t want to be associated with someone who plagiarises.
Again, it could be an honest mistake. But at least have accountability. It’s been 24 hours since Tita Krissy has been made aware, and he acknowledged it, yet still, no action done.
My friend summarized it rightly, “The downside of being a blogger is that… anyone, in a matter of minutes, can copy your work and use it as their own content and the world has no idea that it was yours…”
UPDATE 1
As of December 7, 2021 5am, Miguel of Ben&Ben reached out to me to humbly apologize, and I really appreciate the humble gesture.
With his permission, I’m sharing his message here:
Magandang umaga po, Boy Dubai!Napag-alaman namin kagabi ang sitwasyon tungkol sa paggamit nang walang paalam sa pinaghirapan mong lyrics ng “pagtikim”, na lumabas sa content namin with tita krissy at ninong ry..
You are right, it was an honest mistake and as artists, we should always make sure na laging tama ang credits ng mga content namin. Kahit pa collab content yun, nais naming maging accountable rin dahil dapat inalam muna namin kung saan galing ang lyrics bago namin tinuloy ang pagshoot at pagpost ng content. Kaya lubos kaming humihingi ng tawad. Walang excuse sa pag-miss out nito at dapat naming itama ang mali na ito.
Pasensya na rin kung hindi namin agad nakita ang message mo sa Instagram.
To make things right, we will edit all the description and captions to the posts and tag you as well. Nasabihan na rin namin si Tita Krissy. Pero kung nais mong ipa-take down ang videos, we’ll gladly do so.
Muli, pasensya na at nakaligtaan namin ito.
Maraming salamat,Ben&Ben
I believe you must know what transpired on our conversation. Here it is:
I ended our chat saying… “I don’t think I said it in my previous message, but yes of course I forgive you.” He replied, “Salamat bro. Padayon, magpatuloy tayo sa paglikha. God bless!!”
UPDATE 2
As of Tuesday, Tita Krissy Achino has reached out to me and apologized for indeed the honest mistake. We were able to close things out yesterday.
To quote him, “During the shoot, for transparency, I have already mentioned to credit the owner of the comment where the said lyrics were posted. But my team couldn’t find it anymore. So we decided to push through with uploading it, since (1) we didn’t claim that it was our work, (2) we’re hesitant to credit the wrong person, and (3) we’re confident to perform it because the composers & original singers of the song were present during our shoot. Yun na lang ang iniisip ko that time. And I hope you understand.”
“TKV Team does not have any intention to grab the credits to the parody lyrics. In fact, while preparing for the collab shoot, I told Ninong Ry, Miguel, Paolo, and Ben&Ben of how/where i got the lyrics.
It was an honest mistake that we didn’t put a disclaimer, regardless if we have found the owner of the parody lyrics or not. But, i have instructed to include it in present & future videos across all socmed. Again, apologies & thank you for your kind understanding! Have a nice day! Love, love, love!”
My reply:
Thank you Chino for the apology! I just don’t understand how you or your team cannot find the comment. One, there’s only one post about you on Ben&Ben page at that time. I’m sure it’s not hard to find. Two, my comment became the top comment with 300+ engagements – by default it is the first comment to show up in a post. Even strangers could find the comment easily. Three, pag gusto may paraan – you could’ve asked Ben&Ben kung hindi mo man ma-locate yung comment. Or you could’ve not given up until mahanap nyo yung comment. I also could not remember when was the exact date I posted that, or what the post is. But it took me only less than 10 minutes to scroll through the page and find it. Kapag gusto may paraan, pag ayaw may dahilan. Kasi it’s a content e – and you know that it’s not you who made that. I’ve been in this industry for a long time and is also working in the digital field and I know how these things work. So saying na hindi mahanap is not a valid excuse.
His reply:
Thanks for airing your side!
I acknowledge these points and apologies again for this matter. At that time, it was me who shot last during our Ben&Ben x Ninong Ry x Tita Krissy collab. If i’m not mistaken, it was around 9pm when we did the vlog. I told Gee (yes, she’s my videographer/editor) to look for the comment so we could mention it on tape and credit it on the caption/description of our videos. But she couldn’t find it. I remember Ben&Ben helping us locate, too, where the said comment is, but we ran out of time, not finding it, and resumed rolling. Yes, it may not be a valid excuse, but safe to say, we didn’t mention that it was our work nor did we put on any description that it was written by me or someone from the team. But then again, this has happened and i know this has troubled you and/or made u feel unnoticed. I deeply empathize.
Also, with regards to the time Ninong Ry & I had a conversation about this, which was way past my bedtime, I told him that i’ll make sure to look out for the message you’ll be sending. I know he has sent me a screenshot, but I wasn’t able to see your name and username. I got preoccupied with work the next day & had family matters to attend to. I only was informed the next day, when Ben&Ben texted me about the post on Facebook. That’s when I replied, shortly after i woke up yesterday.
If you’ve felt this was taken for granted, or we, together with my team, ignored you intentionally, again, we apologize. We cannot force you to believe this, but we’ve delivered what we’re expected to do so—to reply, acknowledge our shortcomings, credit the rightful owners, and explain our side.
Hope you have a great day!
I replied: “I’ll have to give you the benefit of the doubt. I accept the apology and who am I not to forgive Chino. After all, we live and we learn. I also had to learn some things the hard way in this journey…” And please tell Gee, I do not appreciate her reacting with a ‘Laughing’ emoji to my wife’s post about this issue. It doesn’t reflect the values you are showing in this conversation. That laughing emoji says otherwise.
He closed it saying:
“Thank you for your understanding! What’s good is that we have all learned in this incident. Sometimes, we need to go through circumstances like these.
Anyway, will give a word to Gee regarding that. I have no knowledge about that, but apologies on her behalf. I just instructed my team to credit you & update all of our captions and descriptions. I told them not to comment nor give statements, since I informed them that will be reaching out to you personally.
Again, thank you & stay safe!”
Photo: Screenshot from Ben&Ben Facebook video
