When creating a new product in the media there are many different laws that need to be obided. In this post I will discuss these laws and why they need to be followed.
Copyright
Copyright was first produced in the 1800's, Charles II of England was concerned over the mass printing of none categorized or recorded books as they arent recorded so can be copied by anyone, the Copyright law then look over brochures, newspapers, theatrical work, music, drawings, paintings, buildings, sculptures, designs, photographic work and computer programmes. The holder or the copyright has several exclusive rights to the piece of media they have created, such as the holder has rights to make copies or reproductions of their own work to sell to other buyers interested. They also have the right to import and export their own work and to create something quite similar to their own product, they are also allowed to display their work publicly when ever they like via radio or video or what ever they choose to do.
Two examples of Copyright is the Apple VS Samsung and A&M Records VS Napster in 2001. Napster was one of the biggest file sharing websites for songs of any genre and any age, A&M records brought in a copyright infringement case accusing Napster of stealing music and making it available to the world for free, the site was shut down in 2012 after a $26 million fued with many different recording companies and songwriters for selling there songs for free, this could have been worse if Napster didnt apologize and shut down the website.
Another example is when Megaupload was shut down by US officials for illigally showing films and tv programmes for free. This site was one of the worlds popular free file sharing websites, this has now been closed due to accusations of the founder and other workers were charged with violating a number of laws. Megaupload has cost copyright holders a loss of £320 million in revenue from films to other media.
Broadcasting Act
1990
The broadcasting act was the reformation of the television licensing which led to the replacement of two parties: The Independent Television Committee and the Radio Authority. This act is seen as a key factor of Thatcher-ism as the legislation incorporated market ideology into British broadcasting. Thatcher-ism promotes low inflation and free markets through tight control of the money supply and the constraints on the labour movement. This has effected television production ever since.
The advantages of the Broadcasting Act is that it generated more competition and commercial pressure with different competitors. It also encouraged more independent productions.
The disadvantages of the Broadcasting Act is that no-one knows how much it actually deregulated the media industry and also caused mass commercialisation.
An example of the Broadcasting act is the radio authority gave XFM a fine of £50,000 in 1999 for two different breakfast broadcasts which mentioned offensive language and many other unpleasant sexual references.
Official Secrets Act
The official secrets act is a legislation that secures the protection of state secrets and official information which is mainly related to national security. It's purpose is to protect the public with any personal and secret information being leaked into the national media. If information is mentioned that isn't supposed to be in the media yet, which is linked to the police, this could cause serious damage to a current investigation with the police which may set them back in terms of solving the crime. This is a massive breach of the official secrets act. Another example is when the News of the World's hacking scandal in 2006, this was when journalist's were hacking phones of people who were in the lime light at that current time, but worse Millie Dowler who was a missing girl at the time, by them hacking into her phone it gave the parents hope that she was still alive, unfortunately she wasn't. They also hacked into many MP's phones, they breached the Official Secrets Act and the News of the World had to be shut down.
Obscene Publications Act 1959
The Obscene Publications act was made so that when certain material became to offensive to show on television or play on the radio that it became a statutory offence which then gave the courts permission to remove the footage. This was introduced by Lord Campbell, the Lord of Chief Justice. The first ever offence given by the Obscene Publications Act was for William Dugdale who was sentenced to prison after finding out his books were found pornographic and too offensive to read.
Examples of The Obscene Publications Act is the film The Human Centipede 2.
This trailer was shown as offensive and so discusting and unethical that they had to take it down, personally i was expecting worse but the main idea of the film isnt exactly ethical.
Another example is when Darryn Walker appeared at Newcastle Crown Court on the 22nd October charged with the Obscene publications act in 2009. He supposedly wrote a story about 'Girls (scream) Aloud' as he claimed which was reported by the police. The article claimed that he imagined Girls Aloud being kidnapped, raped and murdered, this was found on the internet by the Internet Watch Foundation and then taken down. This is ethically wrong as the age range for Girls Aloud is aimed at young girls and if they search on the internet and come across this, this may be traumatizing.
Libel/Slander law
There are two types of defamation. Libel law and slander, the difference between them both is that libel is written and slander is spoken. Defamation is false accusations of someones words or actions either written (Libel) or spoken (Slander) which isn't true then that person can sue. Many sectors of the media industry have to be extremely careful with libel law, mostly publishing. This is due to when newspapers print an article they need to make sure that everything is completely correct before hand, if they print an inaccurate article on an individual then they are breaking the libel law. An example of this is when Frankie Boyle was accused by the Daily Mirror for calling him a racist comedian, this was not true and Frankie won £54,650 after a high court jury found that the Daily Mail made false accusations. This also doesn't have to be humans, if a negative incorrect article is published on the internet about a company, the person who wrote the article can be sued for breaching libel law.Ethical
Ethical constraints are different to legal, ethical is what is accepted in the norms of society, its what is right and what is wrong way to behave with out offending anyone. This is covered by self regulatory industry codes, in media this is up to the producer and the director to make the decision of whether things are ethically correct or not.
An example of ethical issues is the Jonathan Ross and Russel Brands scandal, where they rang Andrew Sax as he didn't turn into their radio 2 show. They rang and made derogatory terms towards his grandaughter Georgina Baillie numerous times, after doing it they tried again and left many voice mails on his phone trying to appolagise but ended up making it worse. They breached many Ofcom rules such as:
- Rule 2.1
- Rule 2.3
- Rule 8.1
They were fined £70,000 for the rules 2.1 abd 2.3 and an extra £80,000 for the rule 8.1.
In total 37,500 complaints were made to the BBC, this was only after 2 complaints were made and then the media took hold of the story and then it became the headline of every newspaper in Britain. Jonothan Ross was suspended form work for 12 weeks with out any pay.
BBC were fined £150,000 from Ofcom to and had to go through many precedures and high risk programmes to get back on track.
Another example is:
The Leveson Inquiry:
The Leveson Inquiry is a public inquiry in the British press following reports of many scandals including the News International phone hacking scandle which caused massive disruption with the public. The Leveson Inquiry was published in November 2012, they started to over look everything in the media from the culture to the ethics. They tried to replace the body of the Press Complaints Commission to make sure everyone was sticking to the rules given to them by the PCC.
The phone hacking scandle ended up with the News Of The World being shut down, as they got into the phone messages of the murdered young girl Milly Dowler, this gave hope to her parents as they assumed she was listening to her voicemails so they could leave more and it wasn't getting full, unfortunetely this wasn't the case and News Of The Worlds editor Clive Goodman was convicted. This then opened up a massive scandle into the British press and they then started looking into many other thins including JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. A journalist went to her 5 year old daughters school, and some how managed to slip a note requesting an interview with Rowling herself, whether it was from one of the other parents she didn't know, she felt an invasion from the press and also her own daughters school was no longer safe from journalists. Rowling then found out than the Scottish Sun spoke to her daughters headmaster claiming bullying accusations from other pupils and parents which was not at all the case. This was an invasion of her privacy and something had to be done.
Another story is Charlotte Church, the singer told the inquiry that she was pressured into singing at Rupert Murdochs wedding for a tolal of £100,00. She was bribed with a promise to recieve 'good press', Murdoch also persuaded her into singing at his wedding by saying he would release information of her dads current affair, and that he would write horrible things about her also. She and her parents recieved £600,000 to compensate for the trauma caused.
Ethical constraints also include:
- Representation of Age, Gender, Race, Disability, Religion
- Protection of under 18's
- Using off the record information
- Power to influence the public
- Interviewing vulnerable people or children
- Intruding on individuals privacy
- Anything that could cause offence or harm.
You have to abide by certain rules that are created by society while in the media. When including under 18's in your TV programme, radio station or interview in a magazine you have to make sure that everything is appropriate and that also nothing legally under the privacy law is obtained. You also have to make sure while asking questions or showing a person on TV of any age that the representation of age, gender, race, disability or religion is ethically correct, such as you cannot show someone being overly racist or show disability in a bad light. Without persuading people into the views of the TV programme or the director of the programme, they are allowed to show their views with out persuading people into believing what they are portraying. Intruding on individuals privacy mostly counts for journalists getting information for a newspaper or magazine but they have to take into account the person being interviewed and what they would like to be asked or how much they would like to be followed about etc. an example of this is The Leveson Inquiry when a journalist puts a piece of paper in J.K Rowlings daughters bag to request an interview with the author or Harry Potter. This is an invasion of privacy and they need to watch how much they get involved in peoples lives. Using 'Off the record information' means that the journalist has to respect the interviewee or the person they want to interview, they are not allowed to betray the trust by using information inappropriately or changing the information given slightly by putting them in a bad light.
As a producer or anyone working in the media, legal and ethical constraints are massive things to obide by. If i were to produce a film these are some of the things that may affect my production:
- If i were to use offensive language i would have to think about who the audience is and what time it would be shown on tv etc.
- I would also have to make sure in the script that the actors didn't say anything that the public may find offensive or may give away certain information i shouldn't to obide by the official secrets act.
- I would have to make sure that my story line doesn't include any sort of offence to the public as then i wouldn't be able to show certain parts of my film, and then i would have to change the story line afterwards.
If i was to work for the BBC, I would have to follow certain guidelines to be a professional producer.
This is the link I found on the internet which is given the producer the guidelines for the BBC.
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownloads.bbc.co.uk%2Fguidelines%2Feditorialguidelines%2FLegacy_Guidelines%2F2000-producers-guidelines.pdf&ei=H8zCUbqlO4WJhQfEg4DgAg&usg=AFQjCNHrWPLUvRsKwma1RCZoYfFsJAaPRg&sig2=pZvVX6U-2GACJSQwf2bEpw
