The Legal, Ethical & Contractual

Involvement in the Media

Industry

In the media industry, there are many laws made up of contracts, ethics and legal rights.

In the following slides, I will explain contracts, ethics and legal rights in detail.

Legal & Contractual

• Employment Legislation

• Health & Safety

• Equal Opportunities

• Employer’s Liability

• Employee Rights

• Belonging To a Trade Union

• Intellectual Property

• Copyright

• Trademarks

• Confidentiality

• Exclusivity

• Laws & Legislation

When considering the

legal & contractual side of the

media industry, you have to

considering the following things:

Employment Legislation

Employment legislation are all of the laws which keep all of the employees safe, comfortable and out of danger. These laws are also made to avoid employees being discriminated and bullied by issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia and age discrimination

These Laws Are Presented as the Following Acts:

• The Employment Rights Act• The Sex Discrimination Act, 1975• The Equal Pay Act of 1970• The Race Relations Act, 1976• The Disability Discrimination Act, 1995• The National Minimum Wage Act, 1998• The Working Time Directive, 1999• The Employment Reactions Act, 1999

Contracts

There are two types of contracts in

the media industry, those are:

Exclusivity Confidentiality

Exclusivity

An exclusivity contract is a contract which allows you to work and deal with just the company you are working for and no other company until your contract ends.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality contracts are contracts in which you sign to agree that you will not discuss or reveal any details of the project you’re working on to anyone who isn’t working on the project due to the project you’re working on being a secret.

An IP is a creation that is made in your mind (for example, it could be a script, a story, etc.) which can be copyrighted by writing or recording it

somewhere and sending it to yourself. Copyright is your right to something that you have made. Although it’s originally yours, you can

sell your copyright for something such as a script or a film to production companies who will then have the rights to change your ideas however

they like.

IP & Copyright

Codes of Practice are rules that are set by the company you are working for which say how you can act in your workplace. These

rules are set to make sure that every worker is behaving appropriately and making the company have a good reputation.

Codes of Practice

Representations & Ethics

The codes of practice help out towards the representation of the company you’re working for because whilst people are following the codes of practice they are being ethical and avoiding racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. Companies do this by creating guidelines.