Regulation / Law

legal issues

legal issues definition - law requirements that have to be adhered to.

consequences in which could take place if these law requirements are broken:
-you could go to prison
-can affect he reputation of your business / product. 

legal issues that need to be thought about when creating a product:
-copyright / trademark issues. 
-release and consent forms.
-health and safety act
-location permissions for
-location recce form (ensure the location is safe to work in)
-data protection act / GPR
-brand permission
-contractual agreements / signed documents.

Legal acts

- Freedom of information Act 2000

Gives a general rights of cases to information held by public authorise.
Gives the public knowledge of what the government is doing, , allows the public tot trust the government and applied the same rules to authorities like schools, dentists universities, armed forces and so on.
Consequences are fines and prison time, loss of staff and future staff - allowing the business to shut down as not enough workers can work the company, public authorities may refuse a request for information if it costs too much.
Example, council in Wales failed to realise information about the cost of employing education consultants, the council was given 35 days to provide information or they'd face court action
5) how does this law effect pre production of a media product?
-before the act was put in place companies would give out false information to get more attention eat, now this is illegal.

- Intellectual property rights

Intellectual property rights are the protection grated to the creators of IP and include trademarks, copyrights, patents, industrial design tights and some jurisdictions trade secrets.
It prevent competitors of thieves from stealing your ideas without consent, allows you to claim what's rightfully yours an gives you the right to take thieves to court if poverty is stolen, gives the owners control over how the borrow used their property.
Consequences: people could steal your ideas for a product, you can get prison time and large fines.
Example: Shepherd Fairy was sued by association press copyright over the image used in Barack obamas campaign, Associated Press claimed the product as they won in court.
How does this law effect pre production of a media product?
-music, can't have copyrighted music in the product.
-photos, they've got to be taken by yourself otherwise they may get copyrighted.

- data protection rights

-An act in which was made to protect personal and private data, such as: your name, date of birth, address, contact info etc.
It allows only certain people to access your data, these people are called data controllers. a data controller is someone who processes and handles data, they have to be registered with a commissioners office to able to work. this act is important as it prevents activities such as fraud, people tampering with your data and prevents your data being leaked.
Consequences: fines and prison time, can also seriously harm the company and the media product that the company is producing as data about it could be leaked and the product idea could be stolen.

Copyright, patents and design acts

Means that a producer can claim the work as their own intellectual property and bans others from using their property without their permission.

-Rightful profit and recognition, registered copy right is safe from plagiarism, copy rights encourage people to create new things by guaranteeing protection for property ideas.
Consequences being taken court, a fine of up to 50,000 pounds, incarceration of up to 6 months.
Example: ice ice baby & under pressure, ice ice baby singers didn't ask for Davids bowie's' permission, was taken to court - David won.
How does this law effect pre production of a media product?

Libel and slander

Libel is when you communicate false information about a person or a company, it is deformation that can physically be seen such as writing, printing, radio or video. slander is similar as involves the communication of false information, it's more physically said lies rather than being written down.
Libel is important as they allow you to prove that you're innocent, it could ruin a company just like it could ruin a person's reputation when false rumoured are going around, slander is important as it helps you gain justice, allows you to be published to a third party for further investigation and you can receive money as a form of rectitude.
Consequences of libel could give the company a bad reputation, therefore leading to people not going to them for business or not wanting to be associated with the, an injunction can be created t stop further defamation, of slander could be being sued and taken to court leading to further if the slander is serious enough, e.g. discrimination, consequences, slander is less serious due to the fact that is comes under the freedom of speech act.
Example: Cricketer Kevin Pietersen's actions over Specsavers advert posted on twitter.
How does this law effect pre production of a media product?
For libel - companies will have to take full precaution so that no false  will be caused in the making of the product, for slander - put a stop on a products creation and by creating bigger issues to solve if something is mentioned during the pre-production process of a product.

Race Relations act

The Race Relations Act 1965 was the first legislation in the United Kingdom to address racial discrimination. The Act outlawed discrimination on the "grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins" in public places in Great Britain (although not in Northern Ireland, which had its own parliament at the time).In other words, you can't do anything in public that puts a division between race.

Criminal justice & public order act

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the existing law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights and in greater penalties for certain "anti-social" behaviours. 

It goes beyond race, e.g. sexuality, geographic location, state of employment and many others. It's also what they use to shut down unauthorised events such as raves. 

Race & Religions Hatred act

The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which creates an offence in England and Wales of inciting hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion. in 2005 after London bombings. More focuses on religion, can't discriminate against it.

Criminal justice & immigration act 

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes significant changes in many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Regulatory bodies 

• ASA - Advertising Standards association.

- Regulate all advertisements such as on TV / Video and Radio. 

- Have guidelines to ensure that the content is appropriate to the target audience, such as pre/post watershed rules.

- Wouldn't be involved within the production stage, but pre-production as they only regulate the adverts once they've been complained about as the products are expected to know the guidelines of ASA when creating it. 

• BBFC - British Board of Film Classification 

- Give films age certificates. e.g 12A, 15, 18, U, PG. 

- Ensure that the content is suitable for the audience, for example if a film is rated a 15, no one below this age is able to watch the film at cinemas, they cant buy / rent the DVD in stores either.

- BBFC rate films based on the amount of explicit and graphic content they include, for example, a film with a BBFC 18 rating would include a lot of explicit language, 

• PEGI - Pan European Gaming Information 

- Give games certificates. e.g. 12, 15, 18 8, 3. 

- They regulate all kind of games such as computer games, xbox, iphone and so on. 

- apply content description graphics to the packaging of games to show the audience some of the controversial elements that are in the games (typically seen on PEGI 15-18 games) such as racism,  drug abuse, threat / horror and so on. content description graphics have been applied to games due to the amount of moral panics games have caused and it also helps parents decide whether they want their children being involved with these sort of activities. 

• OfCom - Office of communications 

- Regulate TV and radio. 

- Ensure that the content is suitable for the audience. For example, due to the fact that most live Radio shows are broadcasted throughout the entire day, guidelines have to applied such as ensuring that no explicit language or biased options on things such as politics or people are included as this could influence a younger, more impressionable audience. 

- Pre/post water shed guidelines - cannot play explicit music or use explicit language before 9pm on radio due to the thought that children are typically in bed by this time and therefore will not hear it. 

For TV, no explicit language or graphic scenes can be portrayed in programmes before 9pm for the same reasons. 

• IPSO - Independent press standards organisation 

- Regulate print based products. E.g magazines, newspapers.

- "Editors code" - i.e. their guidelines, these ensure that the products are suitable for the target audience of the products. 

• W3C - World wide web 

- For website only. 
- Give advice and guidelines to content for websites, they even give you help on how to get good content on your website. 
- don't necessary regulate websites but they do supply support.

• PRS - Performing rights society. 

- Responsible for any music that used in a media product, for example adverts,  jingles, theme music, sound effects, melodies. 

- affecting any sounds we hear in radio. 

- you sign up to them and give them access to your music, if they think it's acceptable you will repaid the royalties if your song is used within a media product. 

- however, if it is seen that someone used your music / SFX etc, without your permission, you can sue them as they haven't contacted PRS to use your property, meaning it's a copyright issue. 

• Trademarks

- includes logos, colours and slogans. 

- applies to all media products: Music, SFX, colours, shapes, characters.

- a trademark is an asset / design, which is legally owned by a person / organisation, such as the McDonalds logo.