Unit 1 Fact Sheet Izzy Crawford

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 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is a civil law and it protects the
owner's products from getting copied without permission. The law covers literary, dramatic
musical artistic, typographical arrangement of published editions, sound recording and film.
The purpose of the law is so creators can have protection over their products and prevent
people from copying or stealing their products and ideas.

This law applies to magazines as the magazine producers either need to avoid any
copyrighted material or get proper permission to use this material. The types of work that
links to magazines and copyrighted are typography, articles and photos.

This applies to Empire magazine as they use photographs and text from movies and TV
shows meaning these sources could be copyrighted by a person or a company. For Empire
magazine to avoid copyright they need to take their own photos, write their own text and
ask permission if they would want to use someone else's photo in the magazine.

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 2010 law is a criminal law and protects people from being
discriminated against. The law covers 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 and sexual orientation. The purpose of The Equality Act 2010 is so people
dont feel discriminated against or offended.

The Equality act is applied in magazines as the producers should not discriminate against
anyone but more specifically minority groups in text or images.

This applies to Empire magazine because they can not discriminate against minorities in text
and images as it goes against the Equality Act 2010. This is relevant to Empire because they
do not want to discriminate or lose any of their audience so Empire can't write anything that
would discriminate or not take images of a particular group just because they are
transgender, disabled, religious or from ethnic origin. For example if there was a movie
based on racism or homophobia Empire does not want to encourage this behaviour or ideas
to the audience so will pick out certain bits to not encourage these negative ideas.

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,
Registered designs shape, packaging, patterns, colours, 1 month
decoration
Inventions and products, eg machines
Patents Around 5 years
and machine parts, tools, medicines

Application: The Intellectual property is a law that helps your products not be stolen or
copied from others. These can come under the names of your products or brands, your
inventions, the design or look at your products, things you write, make or produce. You have
intellectual property if you created the product and it meets the requirements for copyright,
bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner, have a brand that
could be a trade mark such as a well known product name. The purpose of this is so your
products are protected from being stolen or copied.

Intellectual property links to magazines so the producers uses original content and doesn't
copy anyone's house style, logos or images;

This is relevant to Empire magazine since it uses its own house style and does not copy
other magazines plus to avoid this law Empire needs to make sure everything they create is
original and is not similar to another magazine

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 law Obscene Publications Act 1959 is a law that prevents inappropriate
content from being seen by the audience. This is so it doesn't corrupt the audience's minds
or teaches the younger audience anything. The purpose of the Act is so no obscenity can be
released to the public.

The obscene publications law is used in magazines so there is no swearing, nudity or

anything else obscene in text or images

This applies to Empire magazine as the Empire company cannot release a magazine with any
obscene images or text. This is relevant to Empire as they advertise a lot of 18 plus movies
so need to make sure that all the images they take and the interviews they do are mature
and nothing is inappropriate so to avoid breaking this law Empire magazine needs to proof
check their wording and images to see if there is any object that is obscene

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 is a civil law and protects private property from being
invaded. The purpose of this law is to protect people's property from being invaded and
ruined.

This applies to images on magazines as it prevents photographers from going on to private

property without permission. However if you do go onto private property with permission
make sure it is documented.

This is relevant to Empire magazine as the Empire company needs documented permission
to enter any private property for any interviews and photographs. For Empire to avoid this
law they must have documented permission to enter the land or just not go on it if they are
not allowed
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 prevents peoples details from going out into the world. The purpose of this
is to protect the privacy of the person and to keep them safe from the public.

This applies to magazines and newspapers as the magazine producers keep the information
private such as asking if they can put their last name on the magazine and they won't reveal
models addresses, numbers and car registrations for example.

This applies to Empire magazines because models and actors' surnames won't be released
without their permission plus their personal information such as their phone numbers,
house address and car registration will not not be released.

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 helps people's reputations from getting ruined or harmed by false
statements. The purpose of defamation is so people can stay safe and not have a bad
reputation because of false information.

The Defamation Act applies to magazine producers as they can't write anything libel to ruin
someone's reputation. To do this they need to research properly to see if it is true and
correct.

This applies to Empire magazines because they cannot manipulate someone's words in an
interview to ruin their reputation or lie about what somebody has said. To avoid this they
must write the exact words the person has said. Furthermore, Empire magazine must not
write or include images of false information to ruin anyone's reputation.

Ethical Constraints

Ethical issues are not legal issues although some ethical issues have links to some laws.
Ethical issues are what society considers to be acceptable and what is morally right or
wrong. The consequences of crossing the ethical lines are: audience offence, complaints to
regulatory bodies such as IPSO and ASA, losing audience therefore losing income and getting
a bad reputation.
Protecting the under 18s
The ethical issue protecting under 18s is to keep minors safe from content that is
inappropriate such as: inappropriate themes, nudity, swearing, gore and violence, plus
sexual content. These are avoided in images and text so it doesn't cross the ethical line.

Application:
This ethical issue applies to magazines as it cannot include any inappropriate content such
as extreme violence, swearing, nudity and sexual content as it goes against the protecting
the under 18s ethical issue.

This applies to Empire magazine as they cannot include any images from movies or TV
shows that have inappropriate content such as influencing extreme violence, nudity and
sexual content plus obscene language as it goes against the ethical issue protecting under
18s so Empire avoid that kind of content and have images or text that are more suitable for
younger audiences. If Empire magazine interviewed someone that swore they would censor
the words by not including the word or replacing it with another word.

Representation
The ethical issue representation relates to how everything in media is constructed and
represents reality such as people, places and events. Stereotypes are a part of
representation because these can create humour or communication quickly. However, it
could still cause offence so they need to avoid negative stereotypes. Furthermore if social
groups are represented negatively it could cause harm and offence.

Application:
Representation applies to magazines as the media cannot stereotype anyone as it can cause
harm and it can offend the social group

This applies to Empire magazine because they may include images or text that may include
stereotypes. Furthermore Empire articles may discuss stereotypes to bring awareness to the
audience or if it's mentioned in a film. They must avoid relying on stereotypes especially
negative ones.

Production methods
The ethical issue production methods are needed to make sure during production things are
done ethically and morally correct. These cross the ethical issues line: hiding a microphone
somewhere to record a conversation without having consent, using off record information
interviewing vulnerable people and using incorrect information.

Application:

Production methods apply to magazines as they need to have consent for what they are
writing about and the images they have to include in the magazine. Furthermore they need
to have consent for recording their voice during interviews and photo consent so their face
can be in images.
This applies to Empire magazines because Empire needs to have the actors or actresses
consent to be interviewed and their voice to be recorded.

Content
The ethical issue content shows how the text and images have to be appropriate and
doesn't encourage any negative behaviour or ideas. To make sure this happens the
producers check to see images and text are correct, accurate and not offensive so they
don't hurt anyone's feelings.

Application:

This applies to magazines as they need to check there is no obscenity in the images and no
mature language which can encourage negative behaviour

The ethical issue content applies to Empire magazine because Empire producers need to
make sure the images from a mature movie or TV show are appropriate for the magazine
and the text doesn't encourage negative behaviours.