Understanding the Ethical and Legal Constraints With In the Media Sector

Task 1 Video Recording Act

Copy Right Law
What is The Copy Right Law? The Copy Right Law is a legal right created by the
law of the country which grants the creator of the original work to have their say
in the work such as its use and distribution, this will happen for a limited amount
of time.
Why is The Copy Right Law Important? Why The Copy Right Law is important
within the film industry is that people cant copy any of the content that you
have produced, this means that your work would be its own original piece which
would be recognized by anyone looking at it. You will also be receiving money
from your work so if anyone does copy your work, the money they will earn from
it will come straight back you.
What is its purpose? The Copy Right Laws purpose is to protect your work and
insure that your work is an original piece which cannot be replicated within the
industry.
Who does it protect? The Copy Right Law protects the works original creator by
making sure that work that has been product is original, as well as protecting the
work created, it also protects the creator of the work by paying him off when
someone else is trying to make money off his work.
What happens if it is broken? If The Copy Right Law is broken, it can result in one
of these four outcomes, Isolated Infringement which is when the person who
copied your work has done and hasnt realised that the work is copyrighted, they
can be given a warning but not charged. Next we have Digital Millennium
Copyright Act Notice, this is when the copyright owner has a serious
infringement on the internet, and its up to the owner to decide what the
outcome should be done and whats serious. Next Infringement Suit which is
when the owner of a works copyright can sue you for copyright infringement,
the damages can come up to $150,000 for each pieces of work that the court
finds. Finally there is a Criminal Case which is if your alleged infringement is
serious enough, you could face criminal charges, you can be given I fine up to
$250,000, and you could receive a maximum of 10 years in prison or even both
of the above.
(Source: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/happens-someone-breaks-copyright-law55834.html)
Examples of when it has been broken and outcome
In 2007, Google had to pay 2.4 million over copyright breach, Google were
ordered to remove a Belgian articles content from their search engine after
losing a copyright battle with the countrys courts. The outcome was them
paying 2.4 million as a result of losing their court case.
(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1542549/Google-to-pay2.4m-over-copyright-breach.html)
In 2007, MTVs owner, Viacom launched an attack on Google filling a $1 billion
(540 million) at the company, including YouTube which is owned by Google.

Viacom accused Google and YouTube of massive intentional copyright

infringement. The outcome is yet to be determined with more court cases taking
place within the past years.
(Sources: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/mar/14/copyright.news
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom_International_Inc._v._YouTube,_Inc.)
What is the Films Act? Why is it relevant and does it help or hinder the film
industry?
The Film Act is an act of the United Kingdom Parliament designed to simulate the
declining British film industry. The act received Royal Assent on 20 th December
1927 and it came into force on 1st April 1928.
Why this act is relevant to the film industry is to do with how it helped the
declining British films from becoming big Hollywood films and instead labelled
them as independent films within the industry.
This would help the industry because it would prevent them from becoming a-list
movies with large amounts of money to create the film, this would also inspire
other directors/producers to make their own films and add to the category known
as independent films.
Importance of Ethical Issues Use of Language
Within films, they would make sure that use of language is at a level which is
appropriate for all ages and all ethnicities, they would make sure that curse
words were non-existed within the films as it could offend certain people, they
also made sure that when talking about ethnicities that they wouldnt use any
incorrect terms that could be seen as offensive to many people. An example of
this within the industry would be the Budweiser swear jar advert, the reason why
this was taken down was to do with the use of language within the advert. This
shows that language is important to look at as you could have your advert
banned from broadcasting.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki6RZXhCLfc)
Equal Opportunities
The film industry made sure that they were giving opportunities for everyone,
making sure that anyone of any race, gender and ability is a part of their
production with no discrimination involved, this would prevent any issues in the
future and help the industry evolve. For example middle class white men are
usually used within movies such as Daniel Craig in the James Bond films as they
have used him 4 times in 4 different movies.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0185819/)
Encouraging Diversity
Different ethnic groups, ages, genders and physical ability are used in all
different types of adverts to show to different purposes, they can all take part
within any advert which suits their role, they are all shown to be equal to one
another and they all have different roles that they can act with. In some cases,
certain people are used for certain roles to promote awareness on different

subjects, for example people with disabilities in adverts giving awareness about
disable people.
What Ethical issues should be considered when making a film?
What should be considered when looking at making an advert would be the
ability of your actors, making sure that your actor would be able to do certain
action like scenes within the advert is important to look at because you want to
make sure that you are using the correct person and not using someone that
could be injured during filming. Another important thing to look with ethical
issues within adverts would be the representation of ethnic groups within your
advert, you want to make sure that you are treating everyone equal and not
leaving others out or discriminating them from the production.
Representation of Gender How are men and woman represented in adverts?
Are they seen as strong or weak?
The representation of men and females within advertising is concerning because
men are pictured as the stronger dominant gender, they are usually considered
to be perfect with their actions and looks within the advert, their role is
considered to be the most important role within the advert because they are
more of a figure to look at. However, woman are represented as mindless objects
within adverts, they would be used as eye candy in order to gain attention from
the male audience, and they are disrespected within adverts showing off their
physical features, they are mainly considered to be the weaker gender. However
there are adverts where both genders are shown as equal counterparts.
Examples of this happening within adverts would be the Bavaria advert as it
shows two males opening holding a beer with a female in a bikini showing off her
body to them. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMCtpOwBdlY)
An example of where an advert would show both genders equally would be the
Nivea Suncream advert as it shows both male and female as ordinary people
how are trying on Suncream. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnUIod4tX98)
Representation of Religious Beliefs
The representation of religious beliefs within adverts are very rare as TV adverts
are mainly focused on advertising a product, however there are some cases
where there are adverts that promote awareness of religious beliefs from around
the world. Religious Beliefs are more common with print adverts and dont really
have much to do with TV advertising. An example of this would be this print
advert that shows religion within their advert would be the Antonio Federici
advert as it shows Catholics within the advert.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9Af72XBSwpE/TH2kSHaISI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/Aav3dwPt8VY/s1600/tumblr_l81nevxI041qa9d63o1_500.j
pg)
How should men and woman be represented?
How men and woman should be represented within adverts is by showing them
as two equal counterparts that can produce top quality content and are shown
respectively within the advert that are produced. By showing both genders
equally, it means that it will not cause any troubles within the industry and it will
satisfies each gender respectively.

Does your company represent people fairly in their adverts?

The company that I will be working for would treat all people fairly because there
would be all different types of ethical groups and by treating everyone fairly,
they will give themselves a good name within the industry. They would represent
people who they work for fairly as they would want make sure that other people
can come to the company and feel respected. How they show this is by treating
men and woman equally and stay clear of stereotypes within the work place.
Task 2
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
The ASA is regulation body in the UKs independent regulator for advertising
across all media. They apply the advertising codes, which were written by the
committees of advertising practise. Their work includes acting on complaints and
proactivity checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful and
offensive adverts. The reason why they are important is because they filter out
inappropriate content within adverts to make the industry is clean and nonoffensive. (https://www.asa.org.uk/)
Task 3
Consumer Choice
Consumer Choice is when the consumer is not happy with the variety of adverts
on TV, an example of this is when somebody is not happy with the amount of
iPhone adverts compared to the amount of HTC adverts. The complaints that
would come in would be saying why they are not happy with whats being shown
over a certain advert because there is not enough choice.
Freedom of Information
Freedom of Information is when the consumer wants to know all the information
when the manufacturer will only hand out the good parts of information. An
example of this happening would be Tesco advertising their ready meals and not
including information to do with the fact that they were using horse meat.
Censorship
Censorship is when the consumer is not happy with the content being displayed
on television and wants to get the content censored or removed. An example of
this happing is for the advert Nude Scanner 3D which displayed nudity which the
consumers did not find entertaining.
Taste and Decency
Taste and Decency is when the consumer is not happy with the taste of the
advert and also how they are not impressed with the lack of decency within the
advert. An example of this is when an advert could be supplying tasteless jokes
that are deemed offensive and rude which the consumer does not like.