MANILA – The Supreme Court has ruled that allowing customers to listen to a 20-second ringtone sample before purchasing it does not violate copyright laws.

In a 28-page decision penned by Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez, the SC en banc upheld the ruling of the Regional Trial Court dismissing the complaint of the Filipino Society of Composers and Publishers (FILSCAP) against Wolfpac Communications Inc. (Wolfpac) for copyright infringement and damages.

FILSCAP collects royalties for songwriters and composers, while Wolfpac develops mobile phone apps and distributes them through partner networks.

"The Court cannot uphold the composers' reservation of rights since the use of the copyrighted works falls under the fair use," the decision read.

"In this case, the Court stresses that this is only limited to Wolfpac's act of making the song samples available the public for purposes of allowing the potential consumers to make an informed decision before downloading the songs," it further stated.

The decision was promulgated in February 2025 but was only uploaded this month.

FILSCAP objected to a telco firm's newspaper advertisement allowing customers to preview ringback tones online before buying them. FILSCAP claimed this required payment of royalties and a license.  

Wolfpac argued there was no copyright violation since there was "no public performance" given that the samples were listed to privately by potential customers.  

The RTC said the 20-second ringtone preview cannot be counted as public performance and is allowed under the fair use doctrine.  

The doctrine allows limited use of copyrighted material without the need to seek the owner's permission.

The SC agreed with the RTC, saying the preview constitutes communication to the public, not a public performance.

"Only public communication is present when Wolfpac made the pre-listening function available to the public. There is no public performance on Wolfpac's part because the potential consumers were the ones who made the samples audible before deciding to purchase the ringback tone," the decision further read.

The high court found that Wolfpac's deals with the composers do not specifically cover the use of song samples as previews. But it said the samples although substantial in length, help consumers be informed.

The SC also said not all elements of copyright infringement are present in the case, so Wolfpac's action falls under fair use.

"Wolfpac's use of the sample songs in the pre-listening function does not constitute copyright infringement," it said.

"A final note. The doctrine of fair use allows the courts to deviate from strictly applying the copyright laws when their right applications would stifle the creativity that they are designed to foster and when it would frustrate the State's function to promote the diffusion of knowledge and information," the SC added.