Unit 1 Fact Sheet Lucy Chrimes

Legal and Ethical Issues

Legal 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 law prevents people from copying your work or using your pictures without
asking for your permission. If a person was to use someone else’s work they would need to
ask for written documentation of the permission. Copyright law protects the creator of the
work. The work copyright protects is original literary, drama, musical and artistic works,
illustration and photography. If you are caught breaking the copyright law infringement is
usually treated as a civil offence but in some circumstances it can be regarded as a civil
offence with damages decided by court. The result can be a fine or even imprisonment.

It impacts magazine production in general as if a magazine company's content is too similar

to another magazine's content they have the right to sue that company. A way a magazine
can avoid copyright is by making sure their articles and photographs are original and their
own. If the magazine producers aren't checking their articles before getting produced then
get founded for copyright infringement can be used as a civil offence and in some
circumstances either be a fine or imprisonment
This applies to Take a Break magazine as it is important to check and make sure that they
haven't committed copyright law before producing thousands.

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 protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in society.
This law replaced a previous anti-discrimination law which made the law easier to
understand and improved protection in some situations. It means that discrimination or
unfair treatment such as age is now against the law in almost all cases.
The Equality act 2010 provides Britain with a discrimination law which protects individuals
from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and equal society. The consequences of breaking
this law is punishable and you can be served with a fine up to £5,000.

This impacts magazine production as magazine companies need to be careful what they
might say and think if someone could take offence by it, to prevent this from happening
magazines have their articles re-read by a sub-editor.
This may impact Take a Break magazine because someone could find something published
by the magazine discriminating against them, which then means they can punish the
magazine company. A way Take a Break can avoid this is by making sure everything they
publish is fair and promotes a safe and equal environment and also have a sub-editor to
check over the articles before publishing.

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:
Intellectual property is protection of your property. This can be anything from your own
written music, artwork or designs. If you actively break someone’s law they have put in
place, the owner is at obligation to take legal action against you. If this does happen and you
go against someone’s Intellectual property law it can result in injunctions against you, along
with orders to pay high costs and damages. In other cases you could even be found guilty of
a criminal offence and be given a prison sentence or an unlimited fine.

This may affect magazine production because the content inside the magazine can’t be the
same as another magazine’s content and design as this may result in the other company
taking legal action. The content that the law can go against is if your magazine is the same
style as another, the house style is the same or logos looking the same. For the magazine to
avoid this they should create their own design, layouts and logos for example.
This applies to Take a Break magazines as their work they produced needs to be their own
work that they have designed or written. If anything does look the same as another
magazine that has already been produced they can be faced with legal action. Take a Break
can avoid this completely by producing their own ideas and possibly looking at other
magazines so they understand what they can and can’t use.

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 publication act 1959 is when the printing decides whether or not to gain an
obscene article. It also criminalises a person who has an obscene article for publication for
gain (personal gain or gain for another) which can be interpreted in accordance with the
provisions of the Obscene Publications act 1964.

This impacts magazine production as the articles/images being published need to be

checked over again by the sub-editors to make sure for definite that everything inside is
appropriate and doesn't go against the Obscene Publication act. The magazines will need to
avoid content that distributes, circulates, hires or lends obscene material.
This impacts Take a Break magazines as they cover true life and celebrity life stories. They
will not cover stories that are violent or inappropriately sexual in nature and ensure the
content will not be 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:
Trespassing is when you enter or place anything on someone else's property without that
person's consent. Trespassing is a civil law issue, therefore the police are powerless to detain
you for it but they can assist the landowner in trying to remove you. Just for trespassing
without the landowner's consent, you might be fined up to £2,500. Whenever someone is
considered to be trespassing, the initial plan of action is to ask them to leave; but if they
refuse, the landowner is allowed to remove them with reasonable force.

This law becomes specific for magazines as for example the photographs are mainly taken by
the magazine production and the audience themselves so whilst they are taking the
photographs for instance they need to ask permission to take them or go to a public place
where it isn't trespassing.
This law applies to Take a Break magazine as trespassing is a civil law and if the magazine
gets founded for it, it could destroy the reputation that the magazine company already has.
They need to make sure they don’t go on private land without permission.

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.

APPLICATION:
The subject of law known as privacy law is focused on the control, archiving, and usage of
information. Individuals' personally identifiable information, personal healthcare
information, and financial information may be gathered by governments, public or private
organisations, or other people. The only goal of this law is to prevent unauthorised use of
other people's information.

This applies to the production of magazines as no private information can be used even if
the magazine is an article on someone. To avoid this from happening the sub-editors will
need to read through the magazine double checking no private information has been used in
the magazine.
This applies to Take a Break magazines as their content does include people’s life stories so
Take a Break magazines will need to ask for permission to write and publish an article, so
they aren't going against the privacy law.

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 of 2013 is a piece of legislation that was passed by the British
Parliament that modernised English defamation law with regard to concerns of free speech
and reputation protection. The three major requirements for defamation are that the
statement be made public, that it pertain to the individual who files a lawsuit against
another party, and that the defamatory remark be made public. The consequences of
breaking this law would enable the person who slandered to take you to court and sue you.

This applies to magazine production as the writers will need to be careful they aren’t writing
about other people’s lives or business as it could possibly be used against the magazine
production in court as libel.

This applies to Take a Break as they wont lie about factual information about people's life
stories. They will make it clear if the content is gossip.

Ethical Constraints
Ethical Issues links with what is right and what is wrong. This isn’t a legal issue, it just means
that you are working within accepted norms of society and you have to behave in a certain
way to avoid offending anyone. Most of it is based on judgements and links with society’s
standards. If ethical lines are crossed it could create offence, harm or controversy. Regarding
media products there can be different outcomes that might happen. For example offensive,
you could give a bad review which will then result in a bad reputation for the product and
then they would lose their audience. By this happening someone would complain to the
regulatory body.

Protecting Under 18s

There is an Ethical requirement to protect under 18s. This would include not prompting
graphic violence, alcohol and illegal substances in images and text to under 18s and
protecting them when creating content or taking photographs of them. Under 18s are still
protected as they are still classed as children so the content must be appropriate for under
18s as it could negatively influence them and encourage them into behaviour that is illegal,
dangerous or something that could cause harm towards them. The production of content
must also be done in a way that protects under 18s, for example working hour laws are
designed to protect under 18s to ensure they have an education. Under 18s who are
featured in a media product must also be protected for example not taking photographs of
under 18s which is associated with weapons or breaking the law.
Magazine producers need to make sure the content and production is appropriate for under
18s such as the images and text. No nudity, graphic violence or bad language. Make sure the
content about under 18s is appropriate, fair and not an intrusion.Magazines must also make
sure they protect the under 18s when creating content. For example the under 18s cannot
be photographed close to alcohol, illegal substances or weapons. If interviewing actors who
are under 18 the producers must also protect them from inappropriate content and
speculation.

Take a Break magazine protects the under 18s by not featuring any images or content about
people under the age of 18. No activities that aren't suitable for under 18 year olds will be
associated with them. Take A Break magazine features a lot of real life stories from an adult's
perspective. These stories will protect under 18s by not having any images in the magazine
or not using their real names and using an alias instead.

Representation
Representation refers to the way in which people, places and events are portrayed in a
media product. Inside media products nothing is real, it is just a representation of reality as
it is all constructed.
For example, stereotypes or discriminating against certain groups is not allowed. For
example this would impact magazine production because they have to avoid all negative
stereotypes in the magazine article, double checking their facts and information before
publishing anything.

Magazine producers create particular representations of people, places and events through
things like: camera shots, editing, sound and mise en scene. Stereotypes are specific
representations reduced to a few defining characteristics that are often negative which is
reinforced by the media. Stereotypes could cause harm or offence to a person. If there is a
negative representation in an image or text of a magazine that could cause offence to
someone in that social group. Magazines must completely avoid all negative stereotypes and
don't enforce them in images or text.
To avoid ethical issues in the media: avoid negative stereotypes, don't reinforce them,
review their text and recheck all the time.

Take a Break magazine makes sure representation is fair by making sure there are no
negative stereotypes, negative attitude to anyone else or lies made up that could jeopardise
someone's life. Articles will not stereotype or discriminate against social groups.

Production Methods
A production method law is when a place or a person is being filmed or listened to using a
microphone or a device. For example without their consent as it would be considered
ethically wrong because the place or person wouldn't know anything about it. These people
are vulnerable, physically or mentally vulnerable. One way a magazine company can avoid
this from happening is by asking for written permission from the person who is in the
photograph or talking when receiving the images.
Magazine producers can avoid this completely by asking for permission beforehand even
maybe days before so the person can think about it making sure it is definitely something
they want to do. If the magazine does secretly film someone by trapping them they can face
ethical issues. If the magazine company does film someone without their permission they
are exploiting them resulting in that person claiming defamation of character against the
publisher of the certain magazine.

This applies to Take A Break magazine as they need to ask for permission to use images or
things people have said before publishing. This certain magazine’s content is purely based
around other people's lives and things that have happened to them. If the magazine gets
taken to court and are found guilty they could get fined by the court £50,000.

Content
The content links with images and text. Making sure everything is appropriate for everyone
and not harmful or offensive. The content refers to the information provided about a specific
subject and what it refers to. The content that would be seen as unethical could include
anything that encourages criminal activity or offensive behaviour towards other people.

For example magazine producers must not support negative behaviour. The magazine
producers would have to be very careful on the topics they are writing about as it will need
to be appropriate for the Target Audience. The magazine content should not glamorise
negative actions. Take a Break must make sure they are not seen supporting negative
statements or arguments. The magazine producers need to make sure all the content being
produced is appropriate for the readers. Negative behaviour can be associated with the
magazine as it could cause disruption to the sales of the magazines and give a bad
reputation of the magazine.

This applies to the Take a Break magazines as the content they produce is real life stories so
they need to ask for permission before publishing. Take a Break Magazines need to make
sure that the articles being produced are appropriate, clean, positive for the target audience.
Take a Break magazines mustn't publish anything negative or unappealing to the Target
Audience.