TAPE asserts ownership of ‘Eat Bulaga’s’ YouTube channel
Image: Facebook/TAPE Inc.
The camp of Television and Production Exponents (TAPE) Inc. asserted that the production company is the registered owner of “Eat Bulaga’s” YouTube channel, as the camp of Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey de Leon (TVJ) is set to take legal action against the former.
“TAPE cannot hack its own account. TAPE is the owner of the account and YouTube’s record confirms that,” TAPE lawyer Maggie Abraham-Garduque said in a text message to INQUIRER.net on Tuesday, Sept. 12, as she shared photos of the production company’s registration to Google, the parent company of the video sharing platform.
Abraham-Garduque then pointed out that TAPE is the “registered owner” of the noontime show’s YouTube channel, while noting that a former employee named Therese Angeli Diaz is the account’s “administrator” on behalf of the production company.
Images courtesy of Television and Production Exponents (TAPE) Inc.
“As per YouTube’s record, the account’s detail states that tape is the registered owner of the account, the administrator was its former employee, Therese Angeli Diaz and the monetization payee is TAPE, Inc. also,” she said.
“From here it is clear that Ms. Diaz merely made the account for and [on] behalf of TAPE. Thus, when she resigned, TAPE has to assign a new employee as administrator of the account via board resolution to be submitted to YouTube,” she added.
The production company’s lawyer further said that “all YouTubers” are aware that “registered owners” should be tagged as the owner of their respective YouTube accounts.
“All YouTubers know that if you are the owner of the account then you should be the registered owner and you are the one receiving the monetization thereof. We have documents to prove this,” Abraham-Garduque said.
TAPE’s statement comes days after TVJ lawyer Enrique Dela Cruz Jr. claimed that the owner of EB’s YouTube channel “is the owner of the email used to register it” last Sept. 9.
The production company earlier confirmed that it regained access and control of the noontime show’s account after over three months, saying it “lost access” after its former employees left with TVJ “without turning over the page’s email and password.”
TAPE Inc. was previously granted a 10-year renewal to “Eat Bulaga’s” trademark by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) last August, a move which Dela Cruz Jr. pointed out as a mere duty of the government agency. EDV
