Legal and Ethical issues

Legal and Ethical issues

Ethical Issues

Ethics in media is about doing the right/moral thing. Something may be legally correct, but is it the right thing to do?

Considering the ethical impact of a media product is important to ensure the product does not cause offence or bother to those using/consuming it.

Some of the areas that effect ethics in media art:

• Codes of Practice
• Privacy rights
• Public interest
• Levels of violence 
• Representation of groups

Ethical issues in media include finding out what’s legally, but also morally right 

The sun ‘Page 3’ Controversy

• Ethically / Morally - Issues of taste & decency 
• Is this offensive?
• Impact on under age audiences
• Demeaning to women - representation of women

The Leveson inquiry

What is this about?

A murdered girls phone was hacked by a tabloid company, News world, for information. The hacking made all the messages delete so the parents couldn’t listen to their daughters voice again because the voicemail was deleted.

What was the main issue?

They weren’t given the consent to hack into anyones phone, and they invaded privacy. And then once they did hack into the phone, all the messages ended up getting deleted, along with the murdered girls voicemail.

Was the law broken?

No, but now it is. No one knew you could, and that they were doing it.

Are these legal or ethical issues?

Ethical, it’s not illegal to hack into the phones of people, but it’s definitely wrong. Especially on an industrial scale and then posting the information they got on an international level

How do you know the difference?

Because they didn’t make it a law till after the case came to light. 

When ethics turns into legislations

Why were these adverts banned

Morrisons burger advert: Fails to promote healthy eating

Philadelphia advert: Discrimination against men as fathers - shows them as bad parents (stereotype)

Barclays: Caused offence to those who had suffered anaphylactic shock

Legal Issues

How and why legal issues influence the world of media production and its aftermath

Scenario

When you work for a magazine and create content for them. You then want to put that work in your portfolio, your editor reminds you that you can’t use your photos/articles. Why?

Copy right laws - Technically, whilst you made the content, it still belongs to the magazine company as you made it FOR them. So if you were to take that content to a new company, it would breach copyright laws.

Intellectual property act - You have signed documents saying that you will not use your work elsewhere.

Make a list of legislation impacting on media that you might already know:

Copyright

Trademark

Deformation act

Anti-discrimination act

Advertising standard and authority

Freedom of information act 

Slander (comes under deformation law)

Intellectual property act

Data protection act

Libel (comes under deformation law)

Anti-discrimination act Infographic 

 

Intellectual property laws

Intellectual Property Law is a law referring to a brand, invention, design or other kind of creative  creation, which a person or business has legal rights over

Trademarks are a way for businesses or products to represent themselves. A trademark can be: a word, name, symbol, logo, design or picture.

There are different areas within this law:

1. Trademark
2. Patents
3. Copyright (this is so important, it also has its own separate law)
4. Design Rights

(Each lasts for a different amount of time)

Copyright is the longest one (70 years up to the authors death)

This is why Disney are remaking all their movies - in order to keep the copyright

DEBATE

Against

1. There are many different types of ‘Collin the caterpillar’ remakes, yet they only chose to sue Aldi out of them. Whilst they are partnered with Waitrose, other stores have very similar designs and they haven’t used the copyright law against them. So if they’re worried about Design rights they’d sue everyone else.
2. Aldi has gotten the majority of the public on their side with the use of their social media pages, by making fun of the situation and taking part in current trends to be appealing. This will have a major impact on M&S if they go through with lawsuits because they will get a lot of hate from the public.
3. Aldi is known to be a cheap store for people of lower income families, and the fact that M&S, a very high end and quite expensive store is coming for them, has made a lot of people uneasy. If the reason M&S are upset is because they’re making a cheap, lesser quality version of their product, then that can be seen really negatively by the public, as not everyone can afford an official Collin the caterpillar.

Defamation Act

Libel

When a media product is published  that contains information about someone that is untrue and damaging to their reputation. This can be in writing, video, imagery or radio

Slander

Carries the same legal implications as a libel but involves making a false statement in the spoken word

Human Rights Act

Values are what keep society fair, just and equal - doesn’t matter who you are in the world, you are all entitled to human rights

Right to freedom of speech

Right to live                              HUMAN RIGHTS ACT

Right to security 

Data Protection Act (DPA)

All businesses and companies in the UK have to abide by 8 principles

1. You need to give consent
2. Only kept for the reason it was collected
3. Kept accurate 
4. Kept up to date
5. Should be kept only as long as its needed
6. Should be made available to the data subject
7. Should be processed securely 
8. Only processed within the UK

Data has to be secured fairly and securely - if not, its a data breach

Not only the law - the right thing to do (ethical)

Defamation Video Questions

Who did Rebel Wilson take legal action against and why?

Because Bauer media company made a number of articles about Rebel Wilson and said a lot of negative things which weren’t true in big magazines, such as how she is a serial lier about things like her age, her name, and her up-bringing. They got this ‘information’ from someone who ‘claimed’ to go to school with her.

What was the impact of the act of defamation on Rebel Wilson?

She was fired from future work on Kung Fu Panda 3 and Trolls, and also lost out on a lot of potential lead roles for 2 whole years.

How was this case resolved ultimately?

They had to pay millions of dollars in compensation for all the work she missed out on.

Media regulatory bodies

Multi-sector:

• ASA - All advertising
• Ofcom - TV, radio and telecommunications

Specific

• BBFC - film
• VSC - Gaming
• PRS - Music
• IPSO - Newspapers and Magazines
• W3C - Internet
• RAJAR - Radio

Acronym	Meaning	Purpose
ASA	Advertising Standards Authority	They regulate all the advertising across the UK by applying advertising codes.
Ofcom	Office of Communications	Regulate communication services. They make sure people get the best out of their broadband, home phone and mobile services as well as watching over TV and Radio.
BBFC	British Board of Film Classification	Responsible for classifying films that have a cinema and DVD release. They use published classification guidelines to give films appropriate age ratings.
VSC	Video Standards Council	An administrator of the PEGI age restriction system but on video games.
PRS	Performing Right Society	Pay royalties to members when their work is broadcasted on TV or Radio.
IPSO	Independent Press Standards Organisation	Regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK.
W3C	World Wide Web Consortium	Develop and regulate internet standards.
RAJAR	Radio Joint Audience Research	In charge of measuring radio audiences and regulation in the UK.