Yep, it's just a copyright infringement extravaganza!

^^^LOL with Disney and this there could be suits comming out of the whazoo(sp?)!

Thanks! :) That's some of our more recent promotional material. Ya their stuff is totally asinine and their blatent theft of other people's intellectual property is a mockery of not only our Fraternity, but of the entire concept of a fraternal organization.

ETA: I'm sticking this thread since it's the reverse of the Dual Memberships thread.

Brother,Great job!
And to all others, yes this has been going on for years.
I recall reading an article in our in-house magazine in the late 70's or early 80's about this group.

Oh I can't take personal credit for that video. That's HQ's work.

:):)
I KNOW that.
I was commenting about the rest.;)

Here's something fun:

Compare this (scroll down to Hobbies and Interests) with this (scroll to Mission Statement). The first is a friendster page for the Alpha Theta chapter of the Philippine group located in Dumaguete City. The second is Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity's national website in North America.

Both read the same word for word: "The mission of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is to promote the highest standards of friendship, scholarship, and service for our members based upon the ideals set forth by our Founders and as specifically enunciated in our creed."

Who copied whom?

This part is a bunch of self serving c**p:
"About Me:
Sigma Alpha Epsilon coming to the Philippines was a coincidence. An American Exhange scholar of the University of the Philippines, Los Banos campus happened to come across the S.A.E. (Society of Agricultural Engineers), a campus organization for agricultural engineering major. Thought that it was the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, he, being a member in the United States, tried to make contact. When he realized the coincidence, he persuaded the group to transform it into a colony of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon. That was still on the 1940's , so the fraternity did not grow because of the indifference by the University and the Government powered secret society. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon, locally established, faded and slowly become almost forgotten.

Two decades later, a group of agricultural engineering major in the Central Mindanao State University of Musuan, Bukidnon, recognized the Sigma Alpha Epsilon as an existing fraternity in 1965. They recruited not only agricultural engineering major but also from other fields of discipline courses. On September 9, 1966, the Philippine Government duly recognized the SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON as an existing fraternity both in the campus and in the whole country."

This is NOT how one becomes a chapter, let alone a colony.
And just because a National GOVERNMENT recognizes a group does NOT make it a part of an existing Fraternity.

Just wondering....is the fact that this is going on in another country making it more difficult to enforce the copyright?

It shouldn't be more difficult. Many of our organizations have international chapters. I don't know if SAE does.

To the original question:
There was (is) Delta Sigma Theta Pharmaceutical Fraternity. Their crest included a skull and cross bones, and mortar and pill dish.

A relative of mine who didn't know any better gave me a t-shirt saying I bought you a t-shirt of your sorority for your birthday--hope you like it. :D

We do have one international chapter at the University of Western Ontario, but the copyright issue is a question of our national officers deciding to enforce them as only they or the Fraternity Convention have the authority to act as the owner of the rights.

I was looking at Youtube and saw that this SAE issue has been going on for yeeeeeeears.

Your NHQ may be doing a cost-benefit analysis and finding that it is not worth all of the trouble. Maybe they believe that people with an ounce of investigative ability can figure out that the Philipine SAE isn't associated with the real SAE. Even if they are using all of the symbols.

This is tough. :( Pardon me if this is none of our business but has your NHQ not issued a formal statement about this? Ever?

Yeah, honestly, I can see where the cost/benefit math would come in to play.

As soon as I saw what was obviously their home-made flag, I could tell they were "playing" SAE. And frankly, they seem like pretty decent, clean-cut kids, if they were a bunch of hooligans doing questionable things, I could see your HQ being a lot more concerned. Their choice of SAE to "claim" could be seen as being somewhat flattering; they even give themselves chapter names.

Anyone familiar with the greek system will know they're not "real" SAEs. And I think anyone who otherwise wouldn't have a clue wouldn't get a bad image of SAE from what's up there (in fact, they might be impressed that SAE's reach is so big), so until or unless they cross the tasteful line, maybe they're thinking, what's the harm?

Ya this has been going on for about four decades now. You're probably right on the money (literally) with your the cost-benefit analysis theory. I'm sure it'd cost a fair bit of change to pursue a copyright infringement case across international borders. Our national laws used to contain official position statements with respect to certain specific topics, but those were removed beginning with the 2005 edition of the Fraternity Laws. I don't recall any of those statements pertaining to the Philippine organization, so I'd venture to say NHQ has probably never made any formal, official statement one way or another. I do know they've been commented upon in our quarterly magazine, The Record, and in private conversations between brothers, but that's about it.