Legal and ethical issues in the creative media sector

2019. Essay for Digital accelerator course

Legal issues

Law is a set of rules decided by a country for the purpose of keeping the peace and security of its society. Legal issue means a point is disputed by parties to a lawsuit. The issue of a law is a question of how a law is applied rather than a question of fact. Issues of facts are represented by statements of facts. And the question always is 'Is the statement true or false?'

In digital media everything that was created has Intellectual property rights (IP). It is a category of property that includes creations of the human intellect, and it involves copyrights, patents, and trademarks; it also includes other types of rights: trade secrets, publicity rights, moral rights, and rights against unfair competition and contains design rights, copyright, moral and parental rights, trademarks, and patents. Intellectual property law is protecting (with rules), securing, and enforcing legal rights to inventions, designs, and artistic works; it does protect the exclusive control of untouchable (intangible) assets.

Privacy is the ability of an individual (or group of people) to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. What private means is considered differ among cultures and individuals.

Slander is any defamation (action of damaging the good reputation of someone) that is spoken and heard. Libel and slander are civil wrongs that harm someone's reputation, decrease respect, regard, or confidence. In the UK libel and slander laws are contained in the Defamation Act (1996). Defamation also means someone induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against an individual (or entity). Types of defamation are Claiming a person is gay, lesbian, or bisexual, when it is untrue (just to harm the person and his/her reputation); telling someone that a certain person cheated on his taxes, or committed tax fraud; Saying that a certain person had an affair with a supervisor or manager (just to get promoted; although this may be considered slander against two people); Telling co-workers a made-up, or unverified story about a certain person stealing money from the till or Claiming that a certain person has a sexually transmitted disease. (Notable defamations Simon Singh vs. British Chiropractors Association, McLibel (Helen Steel and David Morris) or Cameron Diaz vs. The Sun).

Equality Act 2010 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating, and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, which formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in Great Britain. It gives everyone equal access (eg. accessible to deaf or blind people) to the internet. Note: not every official (government) site has an accessible version just as the London Underground wasn't meant to be for people with disabilities. Nowadays interactive televisions have a audio description option or programs have helping aids (such as the BBC news with the sign-language translator in the corner or before a film starts a message says 'flashing images' for people with epilepsy need to be aware). On electronic devices we can change the colors for color blindness (another example there are mobiles made for visually impairment people).

The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the UK Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Notable prosecutions were Lady Chatterley's Lover trial (the book, which contained the use of the words "fuck" and "cunt" and sexual scenes, was banned for good in England and Wales until the conclusion of the trial (by the mid-1980s), it was on the school syllabus) or the R v Walker case (2009) where Mr Walker was found not guilty for posting a story entitled "Girls (Scream) Aloud", a fictional written account on an internet erotic story site describing the kidnap, rape and murder of Girls Aloud pop group).

The Computer Misuse Act (1990) is an Act Parliament of the UK. It was introduced in response to the decision in Regina v Gold & Schifreen (1988). It was a case when Regina saw two hackers remotely accessing the BT's Prestel service using credentials gleaned from a BT engineer at a trade show via a technique known as shoulder surfing. They were charged and convicted, but their conviction was overturned on appeal as they were able to successfully demonstrate they hadn't attempted to profit from their attempt. The outcome of the case made it clear: technology and the communication landscape has changed so much that a new law was required to deal with the consequences. (Note: it has been updated several times to reflect changes in computing; last update 2015).

Data Protection Act is a piece of UK legislation which regulates how personal data and information can be stored, handled, and used. It prevents companies and organizations from sharing confidential information with third parties, and it gives individuals a right of access to their own data. It was first introduced in 1984 to provide special protection to individuals.

AccessibilitAccessibility refers to productsproducts, devices (mobile phones with larger letters or black background and white letters), services (as I mentioned before sign language or audio description on TV) or environments (accessible entrance for people with disability). The concept helps people to use, for example, a website unassisted (direct access) or a person's assistive technology is compatible (indirect access).

guage or audio description on TV) or environments (accessible entrance for people with disability). The concept helps people to use, for example, a website unassisted (direct access) or a person's assistive technology is compatible (indirect access).

Ethical issues

Ethics in digital media involves moral problems (associated with the adoption of new communication technologies in our everyday life) and new advancement of technology (different techniques that have altered the way business and other activities are undertaken in the world). Examples of digital media are online journalism, blogging sites, and social media. Digital media's role is to act as a medium of communication, but the accuracy of the information is not controlled and can lead to (harmful or dangerous, strange) impacts on our society.

Relationships with clients is important. When a client is talking about us, in a positive way, behind our back, that is lucky. In marketing this is referred to as word-of-mouth-influence (WOMI). There are some unwritten guidelines how to establish and strengthen an emotional connection with clients: Express interest in their family, Engage in some form of social activity outside of the office (typical example can be found in London in the 'money district' where all the brokers and bankers closing their deals in front of the pubs), Need to listen and anticipating Customer Needs, empathize, and steer the conversation towards feelings, Get to know our client but Slow down (it can be an in-office review, a non-business lunch, or a phone call the client needs to feel to be cared about), Include a ‘personal element’ in all forms of communication, Ask for Feedback and Cultivate Partnerships (might be a good idea to connect on Facebook). But most importantly Do Exceptional Work.

Authorship and ownership issues are important. When- and wherever authorship and ownership issues arise, the law of copyright says that an author is the one who created a body of work. But there are other terms such as "Work made for hire" (a publisher (not the writer) owns all the rights to the creative body of work (including the copyright), "assignment of rights" (n author grants all or some of the rights to a publisher), Joint Authorship Doctrine (there is more than one author and this allows right to be shared) and Publisher's Grant of Rights (a publisher isn't the sole author of a body of work, but if there are issues with the doctrine, the body of work could be owned exclusively by the author).

Representation is important when we are building a website (or have one). It's important how to use images, icons, information on it in the eye of anti-discrimination (regarding to race, gender, and age). A website should be careful not to reinforce harmful stereotypes; inclusivity is important and needs to make sure it doesn't breach the Equality act. Usability and accessibility fall under this term as well when we use: language, image, and graphic design (dominant), audio (good for visually impaired people), user friendly for all backgrounds (age, education ect.) and large font.