Unit 1 FACT SHEET Octavian Ulinici

Legal and Ethical Issues

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings,
broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the
ways in which their material may be used.

The rights cover: broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and
lending copies to the public.

This is a CIVIL law not a CRIMINAL law.

This means it is not a criminal offence to break the law, which could result in a fine or jail
sentence.

Instead, the person who owns the copyright has to sue the person they believe has broken
the law. The case is then heard in a civil court and if the person is found guilty of breaking
copyright law then they will have to pay damages to the owner of the copyright. The amount
of damages is set by the court.

Types of work protected

Literary
Song lyrics, manuscripts, manuals, computer programs, commercial documents, leaflets,
newsletters and articles etc.
Dramatic
Plays, dance etc.
Musical
Recordings and score.
Artistic
Photography, painting, sculptures, architecture, technical drawings/diagrams, maps, logos.
Typographical arrangement of published editions
Magazines, periodicals, etc.
Sound recording
May be recordings of other copyright works, e.g. musical and literary.
Film
Video footage, films, broadcasts and cable programmes.
The Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations 1992 extended the rules covering literary
works to include computer programs.

Duration of copyright
For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works: 70 years from the end of the calendar
year in which the last remaining author of the work dies.
If the author is unknown, copyright will last for 70 years from end of the calendar year in
which the work was created, although if it is made available to the public during that time, by
publication, authorised performance, broadcast, exhibition etc, then the duration will be 70
years from the end of the year that the work was first made available.
Sound Recordings: 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was
created or, if the work is released within that time, 70 years from the end of the calendar
year in which the work was first released.
Films: 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last principal director, author
or composer dies.
If the work is of unknown authorship: 70 years from end of the calendar year of creation, or if
made available to the public in that time, 70 years from the end of the year the film was first
made available.
Typographical arrangement of published editions: 25 years from the end of the calendar
year in which the work was first published.
Broadcasts and cable programmes: 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which
the broadcast was made.

Application:
The purpose of the copyright, designs and patents act was established in order to protect the
people’s personal property that they have created themselves and so it doesn't get
stolen/copied/used by others for financial or other types of gain. The copyright law is relevant
to magazines because magazines fall under the typographical and artistic categories which
are both covered by the law. Therefore magazine makers must avoid using copyrighted
material or have certain permissions set up for material that is copyright claimed. This
applies to FourFourTwo because if they use any football/football team pictures or ideas to
write about that arent original/their own then they need to get permission to use them.

Equality Act 2010

This law legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of:
⮚ Age
⮚ Being or becoming a transsexual person
⮚ Being married or in a civil partnership
⮚ Being pregnant or on maternity leave
⮚ Disability
⮚ Race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
⮚ Religion/belief or lack of religion/belief
⮚ Sex
⮚ Sexual orientation

This is a CRIMINAL law.

Therefore anyone who is considered to be breaking the law could be arrested. It would
result in a criminal trial which if found guilty could result in a fine or jail sentence.

Application:
The equality act is in place to prevent targeted discrimination against certain groups of
people. It was also put in place in order to give everyone in society the same opportunity and
have the same treatment in the workplace. This applies to magazines because producers
must not discriminate against anyone for age, being transsexual, being married or in a civil
partnership, being pregnant, having a disability, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation in
any photos or text throughout the whole product. This applies to FourFourTwo because they
need to make sure that all the articles inside of the magazines don't have content that
discriminates against anyone.They also need to make sure that they don't discriminate
against certain teams whilst praising others so therefore they should talk equally about all
the teams that they make magazines about.

Intellectual property
What intellectual property is
 Having the right type of intellectual property protection helps you to stop people stealing or
copying:
⮚ the names of your products or brands
⮚ your inventions
⮚ the design or look of your products
⮚ things you write, make or produce

Copyright, patents, designs and trademarks are all types of intellectual property protection.
You get some types of protection automatically, others you have to apply for.

You own intellectual property if you:

⮚ created it (and it meets the requirements for copyright, a patent or a design
⮚ bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner
⮚ have a brand that could be a trade mark e.g. a well known product name

If you believe anyone has stolen or copied your property you would sue them in civil court.

Types of protection
The type of protection you can get depends on what you’ve created. You get some types of
protection automatically, others you have to apply for.

Automatic protection

Protection you have to apply for

Type of protection Examples of intellectual property Time to allow for application
Trade marks Product names, logos, jingles 4 months
Appearance of a product including, shape,
Registered designs 1 month
packaging, patterns, colours, decoration
Inventions and products, eg machines
Patents Around 5 years
and machine parts, tools, medicines

Application:
The intellectual property law allows people to claim things like names for products or brands,
inventions, certain designs and more in order to not have them stolen and used by others.
This applies to magazines because producers must ensure that all content is original
including: logo, house style and images. This applies to FourFourTwo because the images
of footballers and other images that they put into their magazines aren’t stolen but taken
personally. FourFourTwo also avoids breaking the law by using their own house style for
every magazine and also come up with their own authentic name for every new magazine
and not use anyone else’s name ideas.

Obscene Publications Act 1959

For the purposes of this Act an article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect or (where
the article comprises two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items is, if taken
as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to
all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.
In this Act ‘article’ means any description of an article containing or embodying matter to be
read or looked at or both, any sound record and any film or other record of a picture or
pictures.

This is a criminal law.

Application:
The obscene publications act was made in order to minimise the publication of sexually
explicit content or other offensive content in order to corrupt the people. This applies to
magazine production since producers must ensure that all content in the magazine does not
contain any obscene content (sexual, gore, extreme violence, etc) in the images or text in
the product in order to corrupt the audience. This applies to FourFourTwo because all of the
images and text inside of their magazines are not obscene and are sensible for the general
audience.

Trespass
This is a civil law.
Trespass to land consists of any unjustifiable intrusion by a person upon the land in
possession of another.
Civil trespass is actionable in the courts.

Application:
The trespass law was made in order to stop the intrusion of private property. This applies to
magazine production because the people gathering content for the magazine must not
trespass on private property for interviews or photographs without permission. This applies
to FourFourTwo because they need to make sure that the workers that take the photographs
and do interviews for information do not trespass on anyones private property to do so. In
FourFourTwo’s case the people gathering information should not trespass in places like
footballer's house.

Privacy
The introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998 incorporated into English law the European
Convention on Human Rights.

Article 8.1 of the ECHR provides an explicit right to respect for a private life:
Article 8 protects your right to respect for your private life, your family life, your home and
your correspondence (letters, telephone calls and emails, for example).

Privacy Law is a law which deals with the use of people’s personal information and making
sure they aren't intruded upon. These laws make sure people can't have their information
wrongly used without permission.

The effect this has on radio:

This means that they can't tell the listeners people’s full names or any private details they
don't want revealed. For example if a viewer calls in but they don't want their name to be
revealed then they can't say it.

The effect this has on television:

This is also basically the same as radio, they can't use people’s full names without their
consent. This also means that if they take footage of someone they need to get that person’s
permission before they air it on television.
Anyone who believes their right has been broken can make a civil claim in the courts against
those they believe have invaded their privacy.

When applying the legal principles the court will balance the claimant's right to privacy
against the right to freedom of expression.

If the claimant is proved to be correct this could result in an injunction banning publication of
information; damages; and return or destruction of the material gained from the intrusion.

Application:
The privacy law was made to protect the people's private information and prevent
discrimination and intrusion upon it. This applies to magazine production since producers
must not publish magazines that contain any private information like phone numbers, email
addresses and so on. This applies to FourFourTwo because they need to make sure that
absolutely no private information like emails or phone numbers are in their magazines.

Defamation Act 2013

This Act reformed defamation law on issues of the right to freedom of expression and the
protection of reputation. It also comprised a response to perceptions that the law as it stood
was giving rise to libel tourism and other inappropriate claims.

The Act changed existing criteria for a successful claim, by requiring claimants to show
actual or probable serious harm (which, in the case of for-profit bodies, is restricted to
serious financial loss), before suing for defamation in England or Wales.

It also enhanced existing defences, by introducing a defence for website operators hosting
user-generated content (provided they comply with a procedure to enable the complainant to
resolve disputes directly with the author of the material concerned or otherwise remove it),
and introducing new statutory defences of truth, honest opinion, and "publication on a matter
of public interest“.

LIBEL
A written, published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation.

SLANDER
Making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.

Defamation is a civil law and so you would need to sue someone who you believe has
damaged your reputation.

Application:
The defamation act protects people from harming someone's reputation with false
statements. This applies to magazines because they fall under the libel section of the
defamation act so publishers must not put anything that could harm someone's reputation in
the magazines they make. Magazines must also not contain any false information at all. This
applies to FourFourTwo because they need to make sure that they don't publish magazines
with false information at all and must also make sure that none of the content tries to affect
anyone's reputation with written false information which falls under the libel part of the
defamation act.

Ethical Constraints
Ethical issues are standards that need to be morally followed and are not legal. However,
some do have links to certain laws. Ethical issues link to what society deems morally right or
wrong. Ethical issues are also what society considers to be acceptable for a certain thing.
Some consequences for not following ethical constraints is offending the audience which
could eventually lead to complaints to regulatory bodies like the IPSO or the ASA. Other
consequences include judgement against the magazine or the company as a whole which
would lead to a loss in audience, which would cause a lower income from said magazine
and bad reputation.

Protecting the under 18s

Protecting the under 18s means ensuring that there is no content that involves anything that
is inappropriate or anything that might have a negative impact on anybody under 18. Some
examples of inappropriate content include extreme language, fighting/violence, sexual
content, nudity and anything else that might encourage negative behaviour or reinforce
negative ideas in people under 18. In order not to cross the ethical line, magazine producers
must ensure that they avoid including any inappropriate content in any text or images
throughout their magazines. This applies to FourFourTwo because any of the images they
use must not include any graphical content like injury.

Representation
In the media, everything is a construction that represents reality, more specifically the people
(individuals and social groups), different places and various events. This is an ethical issue
because if social groups are represented negatively it could cause offense or go even further
and cause harm. Stereotypes are a part of representation, stereotyping is very specific and
is when certain representations are reduced to a few defining characteristics that often are
negative but can sometimes be positive. It can often be to create humour or communicate
quickly, however stereotypes can often be offensive. In order not to cross the ethical line,
magazine producers must not include any stereotypes in their articles or any other text in
their magazine. This applies to FourFourTwo because they must ensure that they do not use
any stereotypes for any of the footballers or managers that they include in their magazines.

Production Methods
When thinking about production methods, there should always be taken into consideration
what is ethical and what is unethical. Producers must always ensure that they are using
morally and ethically correct methods to gather information. Avoiding using ethically
questionable techniques like gathering information with methods like hidden microphones,
off record information and interviewing vulnerable people is essential in the production
process. In order not to cross the ethical line, magazine producers must ensure that any
information that they need or want to get must be gathered ethically and with consent. This
applies to FourFourTwo because if they want to get any information from a footballer or
manager, they need to do it up front and directly ask them for consent to use the information.

Content
When talking about the content of a product, producers need to check that all content does
not contain anything inappropriate and does not promote any negative ideas or behaviour. It
is also extremely important to ensure that all content (images and text) is correct, accurate
and not misleading or offensive to any type of audience. In order not to cross the ethical line,
magazine producers must not include any false information and not content in general that
might give people encouragement towards negative behaviour. This applies to FourFourTwo
because they must not include anything like violence between the footballers in their pictures
and not put any false information about anyone or any game in their articles.