Legal & Ethical Issues that affect the Interactive Media Industry

Each issue has 3 sections. 1- give a correct definition of the term. 2. Find a news example from interactive media and give a brief description of that. 3. Your thoughts on how could this issue potentially affect you or your work; what considerations you might take in the future; or have you had any experience with this issue?  

LEGAL

1. Intellectual property rights (IP)

Intellectual property- creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, a few of them are copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.

You might be able to get permission to use intellectual property by writing to the owner of it.

Copyright is a protected legal right to intellectual property. It's protected authorship.

Fair dealing it's allowed limited use of copyrighted material(Copyright Act), for example, if it's used for research, education, private study, satire, criticism or review or news reporting.

Trademarks it's symbol or words that are legally registered that represents goods or services.

Patents it's an exclusive right granted for an invention(a new way of doing something). In intellectual property, it prevents others from using your invention commercially for 20 years.

Infrigiment it's a violation of someone's intellectual property, doing something against the law. For example, infringement is when you own a copyrighted artwork and someone is: copying the work; adapting, transforming, translating, or creating other works from the original one; distributing the work to the public by sale or other methods; performing the work in public, including digital audio transmission; publicly displaying the work; etc.

How can copyright protect your work?

Copyrighting your work prevents it from using it without permission. It prevents copying, distributing copies of it, making adaptions of it, and so on.

2. Data Protection Act 2018

It's the UK's implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR).

It controls how your personal information is used by organisations, businesses and the government.

You have a right to find out what information about you is being stored about you, and be informed what data is being used about you.

Media or industry example of a data breach:

It's an incident where information is stolen/taken/viewed from a system without the knowledge or authorization of the system's owner. It's a security violation.

It can be as simple as for example sending an email with personal information data to the wrong person. Loss or theft of a USB drive/ computer, etc.

How could data protection affect you or your work?

The information about you must be kept secure, accurate and up to date. It must be told how information about you must be told(for example when you sign the contract).

Samples of information: the records of your working hours, which can be useful. Employer will store the information of your address, phone number, etc.

Defamation – libel and slander 

Defamation is oral or written communication damaging the good reputation of someone, that is untrue; it's categorized into 2 types- slander or libel.

Libel is tangible in the form. It's in a form such as print, writing or pictures, for example- magazines, internet, blog, article, etc.

Slander is intangible in form. It's spoken words and gestures, for example- speech, podcast, video, etc.

How could libel or slander potentially affect you or your work?

Well, it really depends on what sort of accusation is being shared and what is the purpose of it.

Nowadays we have a lot of false information going around and it's hard to believe what is actually true.

Well, defamation, can affect a place of work negatively in most cases. Some people create stories about others for the sake of jealousy and so on. Sometimes it can be hard to speak up to your truth.

Contracts & Employment law (covered in case study task)

Definition of a legal contract. It's a contract that is a legally binding agreement(written or oral) between an employer and an employee.

Three types of contracts: permanent employment, temporary employment and independent contractors.

Working to a brief. An employer must let the employee know the role, responsibilities, conditions and the time of the work, working hours, etc.

Penalties for breach of contract.

It can be a termination of the contract, various court orders, the person can be sued for the damages, etc.

Media or industry example of breach of employment contract:

Unlawful reduction of staff pay, changing the working hours and other terms of employment without approval, not paying holiday pay, sick pay, etc.

How could employment contracts affect you? 

Well, it can protect the employer and the employee in certain ways. For example, a leave notice: if an employee leaves the workplace without the stated leave notice and the company loses a lot of funds the person can be taken to the court for that.

A written contract gives you more certainty over your employment status.

For example, if your employer might need a certain time to terminate the contract, however, it says in the agreement.

2010 Equality Act (EQA) – WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY 

Definition with emphasis on website accessibility: It's anti-discrimination law, relating to race, gender, religious belief, sexual orientation, disabilities and so on.

The website has to be accessible to people with disabilities and without them, without being discriminated against.

Media or industry example of a legal case of EQA online accessibility:

Disabled access to websites under UK law (pinsentmasons.com)

How could the EQA affect you or your work? 

If you create a website, it must be checked for its accessibility; for example in Wave Web Accessibility Website, and if there are any errors that could really cause difficulty to use a website they should be fixed.

ETHICAL

Why are ethics (business/professional ethics esp) important?

Its moral principles, which benefits society, fairness, it's normally based on personal values.

Honesty, caring and compassion- are good ethics for example. 

It's good to keep good ethics; such as being fair with each other.

Ethics

Media or industry example of questionable ethics:

Questionable ethics, for example, is lying, breaking promises, murder, theft, etc.

Well, for me a very questionable ethic is eating meat, cause it's very unethical on any scale.

How or what ethical dilemma could affect your work? 

Well, for example, you can recommend your client a certain thing that could make a better profit for you, for example- changing the whole wheel instead of patching it up. It might take less time to change the wheel than to fix it up, so it can be an excuse for that.

Relationship with client
It's important to have a polite and respectful relationship with your client in order to have good communication and understand clients' needs.

Describe the importance of good client relationship, listening to client needs and respecting client wishes:

For things to "work out" there has to be good communication between both parties. We have to understand each other and react respectfully. I think good communication is a key to success.

Media or industry example of client relations:

For example, social media, if you have a profile where other people follow you(your company): making a Q&A where people can ask questions or answer the questions you give; media posts that interact with the people and so on, engaging the audience.

How could these client relations affect you and your work? 

The customer that had a good customer experience is more likely to leave a good review, purchase again and "spread the word" and so on. 

The ‘media effects’ debate

"Media effects" debate is a certain effect that media can cause to an individual by its exposure.
For example, someone playing violent computer games can be also violent in real life and so on. That's why there are often restrictions of age to certain mediums of entertainment.

People can be influenced by the news, articles, television, films, all sorts of surroundings caused by the media.

A certain person(celebrity, a fictional character, etc.) can be like a role model for others for example.

There can be propaganda and fake news made by the media, and so on. 

Media example of ‘media effects’ being cited:

There can be some sort of planned effects that were being translated through the media. Different media can create certain outcomes by influencing/affecting people.

How might the ‘media effects’ debate affect your work?
Well, you might create a piece in regards to something that you were influenced by the media. For example, in social media, you create something that is popular at the time,  it might help you gain more new reach from the people following the trend. 

Representation (eg race, age & gender)

Definition of media representation:

It's a definition of how media texts deal with and present gender, race, ethnicity, etc. In film/television it would be editing choices and camera angles, in a written context(magazines, etc) it's a layout, writing and the choice of images.

It's basically how media makes us see others and how we see ourselves.

The media representation can be for a certain audience, etc.

Media or industry example of representation:

It can influence us, open us to new ideas, be a source of inspiration. 

Why Is Equal Representation In Media Important? (forbes.com)

How could representation affect you or your work?

Well, your work can be representing a certain gender, race, etc.

For example, I want to take portraits of all sorts of people of colour and age to show diversity in the work I do.

Blasphemy

Blasphemy is when someone insults or doesn't respect God(religion, anything that is held as divine).
Media or industry example:

Vandalizing a church is considered blasphemy. Saying that God is unfair, cruel is also blasphemy. Even saying that someone should be called Jesus or ar better than Jesus is a type of blasphemy.

How could blasphemy affect you or your work? 

Well, it's just quite disrespectful towards others and religious beliefs. We should tolerate and respect other people and their religions.