Copyright
Copyright is where one person uses something created by another without the proper consent. Copyright is covered by the Copyright Designs and Patents act of 1988 which regulates the use of copyrighted material. Literally anything can be copyrighted and as long as you can prove that you created it first, you can sue people for using it. Copyrights or patents last for as long as the person lives plus 70 years after their demise. As a result, the works of Shakespeare and Bram Stoker are free to use because the writers are long since dead.
Copyright infringement is a civil offense which means that you can be sued or face heavy fines should you be caught breaching it. A recent case where copyright was beached could include Will.I.Am and Chris Browns latest track which is alleged to be too close to a trance track by Arty & Matt Zo. It is claimed that Will.I.Am’s track is a rip of off the track and as a result the singer is being sued for an undisclosed amount of money.
Interestingly, part of the Copyright Designs and Patents act of 1988 allows for ‘Fair Use’ of copyrighted material. This means that people can use ‘Small Clips’ of content for features like news or for reviews. In these cases, facts or opinions need to be expressed and the true owner of the copyrighted material made clear to the consumer.
Advantages:
The biggest advantage of copyright laws is of course the fact that it keeps safe the intellectual property of individuals or businesses and makes sure that they get the proper recognition they deserve.
Another advantage could be that the laws make it easier to understand what is or isn’t copyrighted
Disadvantages:
The biggest disadvantage of the copyright laws is that it’s sometimes difficult to make sure you have got permission for all of the copyrighted materials. Even the smallest things can be copyrighted such as in one case the tattoo of Mike Tyson. When this tattoo was copied in spoof comedy ‘The hangover’ the film makers were sued. However they weren’t sued by Tyson who had given them permission to copy it, but by the original artist who had created it. The artist had the real intellectual property of the tattoo and demanded money or that the film makers digitally alter it.
This brings me to the other disadvantage of copyright, to make a claim you have to prove that you created it first which isn’t always easy. In extreme cases the true owner may lose out to somebody who has a definitive date for their ‘creation’ while you may not be able to prove you created it earlier.
Libel
Libel is defamation of a person or organisation through use of written words or images. (However slander is the same but through spoken words). This is yet another case of a civil offence that is punishable by suing or by in journalistic cases, the journalist being fired and never being able to work in the industry again. Current English law allows the individual or individuals (sometimes companies) to challenge the statement. Where it gets interesting is that it’s up to the person who wrote the statement to prove it rather than the defendant to prove they are not. As a result it is possible for affluent individuals to pay lawyers who could defend their clients by casting doubt in the minds of jurors. This means that libel is a dangerous game for media producers.
However that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. In some Medias they on purpose publish libellous content to attract readers. The sale of the slanderous media easily pays for the costs of settling with the individual.
Advantages:
Anti-libel laws are swayed heavily and rightly so in the favour of the individual to make it possible to prosecute those who write libellous content.
Disadvantages:
The laws can be taken advantage of by hungry media producers to allow them to say what they want with almost minimal costs. As is the case with magazines such as heat who regularly pay off celebrities after slanderous comments.
Ethical Considerations
Legal Constraints
Within the media, ‘it is an offence to incite racial and religious hatred’- The Racial and Religious Hated Act of 2006. This act means that media producers cannot allow any form of racial or religious remarks to be published / broadcast. For example they must avoid all racist remarks on chat shows, phone ins or any other form of public media otherwise they will be prosecuted. This is after all a criminal law. Even if the remarks are balanced against anti-racist remarks, they will be prosecuted based on the fact that the remarks were said in the first place.
There is however a way they are allowed to have them. In fictional media such as films or TV shows, they may use the hatred if it portrays the character correctly. After all you cannot have a racist character that isn’t racist. This is because it isn’t real hatred. The law also allows the racism, loosely, in songs though why this is allowed is a bit of a grey area.
Advantages:
Makes sure that no forms of racism or anti-religious hatred is broadcast within the media. Therefore making the media a friendly place
Disadvantages:
The exceptions within the laws are grey and can be sometimes confusing. For example on Channel 4 they offer a small art of the day up for the public to offer their beliefs and air them. These beliefs however tend to cross boundaries into racism, religious hatred, homophobia and many other discriminative and generally wrong areas.
Representation
The representation of minority groups within media is another grey area. Producers must make sure they represent all minority groups fairly and make sure they don’t stereotype them. For example in media, they cannot follow the stereotypes of blondes being dumb, black people being thieves or Russians being the enemy. All of those stereotypes have been used within media recently. Laws about this used to be a lot less strict, as far back as the 70’s, it was perfectly fine to represent people however you liked.
Free speech also falls into this. In some cases people believe that media producers should be allowed to show the world as it is without falling foul of representation laws however this creates a grey are about what is allowed. The other argument this creates is the representation of violence, sex and bad language. Some say that it all should be lessened and should not be allowed while other people argue that producers should be allowed to show the world as it is, not a nice place. However this argument is different on the different medias. TV groups want it to stay off the television as kids may be watching, while movie groups say movies should be allowed to show what they want.
Advantages:
Representation makes it fair for all social groups and makes sure that stereotypes are not shown within the media which is a good thing.
Representation also makes sure that minority groups are shown fairly and not forgotten or ignored within the media.
Disadvantages:
It is claimed by some that the representation laws stifle free speech.
Privacy
Within the UK there are no specific laws on privacy; however as part of a country within the UN we have to follow the Human Rights Act of 1998 which exists to provide “The right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence”. This basically means that people within the media should respect the privacy of others. However that doesn’t mean they always do. Look at Facebook for example. This company provides a service worldwide however it doesn’t exactly respect people’s privacy and numerous times this has been called up. Numerous probes into the company have been launched from numerous governments.
The problem with privacy is that different people hold different values and ethics and therefore tend to follow different rules. This is mostly because there are no real laws for privacy in the UK so they can. It’s generally thought that if a person spends most of their lives in the public’s eye and actively encourages the media to talk about them, then this person is more likely to have requests for privacy denied as is the case with Kim Kardashian. However just because you spend your life in the public eye doesn’t always mean you don’t get privacy. In the case of the Royal Family, they get respected. The reason isn’t because they’re royalty, but because they don’t encourage the media. They are in the public’s eye only when they are on duty somewhere. Every other time they do not wish to be in the media. As was the case with Kate Middleton and her topless sunbathing. She had wished for privacy however this was not followed out and as a result the royals sued everybody who published the pictures.
