Here are some clarifications on the NTC Memorandum Issue.

Marcelle points out in his blog that bloggers don’t need to worry about NTC’s Memorandum because it only concerns telecom companies.

If you read closely enough, the intention is clear: this bill is aimed for value-added services like ringtones, picture messages, and so forth. This bill is mainly for the cellphone industry, since the NTC has jurisdiction over Telecom companies, but currently, is not quite empowered in the realm of the internet. Furthermore, the bill is not meant to burden the content developer, but in reality, is meant to empower the content developer by changing the current profit scheme that favors the content provider more than the developer. The obvious catch is to ensure this happens, the developers must register. [Read more on Marcelle's Blog]

For further assurance that there’s no need for bloggers to worry, Romeo of LengMei Media took the time to E-mail Mr. Edgardo V. Cabarios, director of common carriers authorization department of NTC, for clarification. The reply to his email read:

Sir,

The proposed rules apply to those who offer contents, information, applications and/or electronic games to the public for compensation. If the contents, information, application and/or electronic games are free, then the providers are not covered by the proposed rules.

Edgardo Cabarios

So basically, what it says is that, if you’re not asking a fee for your content then your blog/site is not covered by the rules.

Other notes:

There was supposed to be a hearing last January 22 about this issue but NTC suddenly cancelled it saying that they need to “re-study” it. There are still no announcements on when the next hearing will be.

Honestly, there probably wouldn’t be any confusion in the first place if the memorandum wasn’t poorly worded. Even though it was still in draft form, I think that it was a little too vague which made it open to misunderstandings.

It was suggested by the momblogger over at plurk that NTC should state in their future drafts that blogs are not covered by the memorandum, which I think is a very good idea as to prevent any further confusion among bloggers.

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I’ll keep you guys posted on this issue if anything comes up.

Happy Blogging!