Legal and Ethical considerations

Nicole Taylor

CopyrightThere was a law made called ‘The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act ‘ in 1988. The Copyright Act was created to protect the investment of time, money and effort by the people who create new and unique pieces of original work.

The Copyright Act has two main purposes 1.To ensure people are rewarded for their work, 2.To give protection to the copyright holder if someone tries to steal their work.

Copyright Advantages for media producers are that if they have created and own a piece of production they can call it there own and have pride in and it is protected against being stolen and someone taking it to claim as there own.

Copyright disadvantages for media producers are if you find a piece of production you like, it would have been copyrighted or even if not you need to contact that person and ask permission to use it, if its done by a professional and your a professional in the industry you might have to pay to use it too, it depends on the person/company who own the production. Or if you don’t ask permission for someone’s audio or video footage or photograph then you can be sued if they find out.

The concept of copyright is tied with intellectual property and it ensures that creators of original work (writing, music, art) are guaranteed ownership of their work. Any creator is guaranteed automatic copyright over that specific work, however a certificate of registration is what secures the creator's rights particularly if legal matters arise. Creators can gain a certificate of registration by applying to Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

Authorship

The person(s) who originates or gives existence to a piece of writing, music, or art. It is important to outline that authorship is not granted unless the creation is tied to a tangible form of expression - words, musical notes, painting, sculpture etc.

Libel

• Libel is a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation: a written defamation.

• It is the protection of the reputation of others is a legitimate ground for restricting the right to freedom of expression. Libel and slander are legal claims that protect an individual’s reputation against defamation.

• An individual is defamed when a person publishes using and relying on third party words or making false or inaccurate accusations that could damage a persons image or ruin there reputation.

Real example of Libel

• Rumours or using false and inaccurate information from third parties for example the Michael Jackson case, rumours of him being a paedophile which cant be proven and no one had any evidence or any particular reason and no ‘alleged’ victim spoke out to say that he really was, press dragged the rumours out and it damaged his reputation and image and over shadowed all the hard work he had done to build his reputation and iconic image.

• In interviews when Michael got questioned about these rumours he’d have an answer/explanation why he did the things he did that made people suspect he was a paedophile for example Neverland and his relationship with young children, which was because he didn’t have a child hood so he made Neverland for all the children so they could have a childhood and make the most of it, he made it into everything he would of wanted to do when he was a child, and his close relationship with children was because he was still a big kid and liked having fun and he loved children and wanted to give them fun things he never had or had the chance of doing.

• Media producers can protect themselves against libel as long as they have or give a reason for the stuff they have produced before its released or when its released as people/press will have first impressions, pre judgements and make assumptions and accusations. So they have to be prepared for that.

Ethical Considerations

• Legal Constraints

• A constraint is a limitation or a restriction on something to prevent something else from happening. In the Media industry there are many limitations, laws and restrictions. Some regulations aren’t legal meaning they aren’t provided by law.

Ethical Constraints

Representation • Ethical Constraints• The representation of violence and sex and the presence

of strong language. Ethical guidelines and legislation in this area are common and many media (e.g. film, computer games) are based on ratings systems and supervision by agencies.

• Product placement. An increasingly common marketing tactic is the placement of products in entertainment media. The producers of this media may be paid high sums to display branded products. The practice is controversial and largely unregulated.

Privacy

There are four fairly clear categories of privacy protection:

• Appropriation – Individuals have a right to protection against the unauthorized use of there names for commercial purposes. This is referred to as ‘right of publicity’.

• False light – Individuals have a right to protection against disclosures of private facts that place them in a ‘false light’ before the public.

• Intrusion – Individuals have a right to protection against unwarranted intrusion on private affairs.

• Public disclosure – Individuals have a right to protection against the public disclosure of embarrassing facts of there private lives.