The Laws

This is my SA on Law and Ethics. October 2013

 

 

What is Law?

Well there are two types of LAW in the UK, there is ‘Criminal Law’ and ‘Civil Law’,

Criminal Law is the law set out by the government to police the country and protects the people.

Civil Law is use to help you protect you self, this mean that if you feel that you have been slandered in any way, you may want to try suing a person in a Civil Court.

With in these laws you also have different area, here or for of those:

Copyright:

The Definition:

Copyright refers to laws that regulate the use of the work of a creator, such as an artist or author. This includes copying, distributing, altering and  displaying creative, literary and other types of work. Unless otherwise stated  in a contract, the author or creator of a work retains the copyright. For a    copyright to apply to a work, it must be an original idea that is put to use. The idea alone cannot be protected by copyright. It is the physical use of that idea, such as an illustration or a written novel, that is covered under copyright law.

http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/legalglossary/g/copyright.htm

This Law is a Civil Law and is there to help companies, film producers and even your self from piracy of your property; this could be in the form of written work, music, video or anything that you can create that some one ell could use with out your promising: you can get away with using a small clip if it is in say and SA or a documentary to help the information that is being passed on

The good side to this act:       

you get to keep you creation secured in the eyes of the law, if some one want to use a image or a sound clip ect, they will have to come to you for permission, you can agree or disagree to let them use it, this is your choice, and this they still use if, you will have a case to take them to the civil courts

The bad side of this act:        

if you want to use some one ells creation, you then have to get permission and this can take time and money.

Example:

George Harrison vs Bright Tunes Music Corp.

George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ was released January 15, 1971 and hit the charts on January 23, 1971 as George Harrison’s first solo single. It was released under the Apple label and enjoyed the number one spot originally for five weeks, then in 2002, again for one week. It remained on the charts for a total of twenty-seven weeks. All of this is the good news. The not so good news involves a song called “He’s So Fine” recorded by the Chiffons in 1962 and then moved under the Bright Tunes Music Corp label in 1971. The Chiffon’s song did well in the United States and received a luke warm reception in the UK.

February 10th, 1971, Bright Tunes filed a suit against George Harrison inclusive of his English and American companies. The suite also included Apple Records, BMI and Hansen Publications. Though an out of court settlement was approached, including an offer of 148,000.00, but it never reached fruition before the court case proceeded, as the attorneys for Bright Tunes Music Corp. wanted seventy-five percent of the royalties and the surrendering of the copyright for My Sweet Lord.

The case waited to be heard for five years, during which time George Harrison’s attorneys continued to try to settle out of court. The case was heard in court for the first time, in February of 1976, George Harrison’s attorneys tried to prove out the difference between the two songs, but with little success. The judge found that though he didn’t believe George Harrison purposefully plagiarized the song, the two songs were essentially the same, only displaying minor differences to note and chord. George Harrison was found guilty of ‘subconscious plagiarism’ and a judgment was filed against him in the amount of $587,000.00 of which the full amount was paid and the judgment dismissed in 1981

Some time this can work for and ageist the plaintiff

http://www.fairwagelawyers.com/most-famous-music-copyright-infringment.html

Libel:

The Definition:

 1)      n. to publish in print (including pictures), writing or broadcast through radio, television or film, an untruth about another which will do harm to that person or his/her reputation, by tending to bring the target into ridicule, hatred, scorn or contempt of others. Libel is the written or broadcast form of   defamation, distinguished from slander, which is oral defamation. It is a tort (civil wrong) making the person or entity (like a newspaper, magazine or political organization) open to a lawsuit for damages by the person who can prove the statement about him/her was a lie. Publication need only be to one person, but it must be a statement which claims to be fact and is not clearly identified as an opinion. While it is sometimes said that the person making the libellous statement must have been intentional and malicious, actually it need    only be obvious that the statement would do harm and is untrue. Proof of malice, however, does allow a party defamed to sue for general damages for damage to reputation, while an inadvertent libel limits the damages to actual harm (such as loss of business) called special damages.

 

http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1153

Libel is deformation by some one in text or images, (slander is spoken words)
This is also a Civil law matter and can be brought against one person or a company.

In court you have to prove that what you have written is true and that you stand by your comments, the person you have written about dose not have to prove that you’re wrong

The good part of this act:

You have the right to take some one to court if they are printing or say un-true       thing about you in public

The bad side to this act:

Too many starts and public figures are in the line of fire and will some times fall back on this so it is a law that is used to freely, even publications or shows will make thing up just to get better sales or rating with a understanding that they may get sued, but the cost of this is nothing to the profit and publicity they will receive            

Example:

McCann's launch £1m libel case against Portuguese ex-detective A libel case in which the family of Madeleine McCann are seeking £1m of damages from a former Portuguese police chief has begun in Lisbon.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-2405716)

Ethical Law:
                     

The Definition:

The word ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, which means "character," and from the Latin word mores, which means "customs."   Aristotle was one of the first great philosophers to study ethics. To him, ethics was more than a moral, religious, or legal concept. He believed that the most important element in ethical behaviour is knowledge that actions are accomplished for the betterment of the common good. He asked whether actions performed by individuals or groups are good both for an  individual or a group and for society. To determine what is ethically good for the individual and for society, Aristotle said, it is necessary to possess  three virtues of practical wisdom: temperance, courage, and justice.

‘The on line legal dictionary

The come under the Criminal Law act, this is because this kind of crime can create violent and hatred towards a person or a race. Basically it is to protect all types of people living in the UK, it s thereto stop racial and religious hatred under the Racial and Religious hatred act of 2006. The UK is such I divers place and home to many cultures and done always see eye to eye. So this law is here to help them get along, but there is some exceptions to this, for example, if I was to stand in the street shouting abuse to a Indian man, then I would be breaking the law, but if I was to do that with in a drama or a film, then it would be part of a story and not breaking the law, this can also happen in music and books. But on TV and debates shows, the production must be careful, you may show both sides of the story, but this would also be classed as spreading hatred, so this is a very thin line for producers

You must also keep in mind Representations and Prejudice under this act

The good side to this act:

It protects every one from abuse over there skin, culture, religion and more

The bas side to this act:

The word racist is thrown around to easily and people are scared to speak at times, in the 70’s people did and said a lot that we to day would be put in jail for.

Example:

Police search for woman in racist YouTube rant

Detectives are investigating a YouTube clip which apparently shows a woman hurling       racial abuse at a man on the Tube.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-search-for-woman-in-racist-youtube-rant-8582662.html

Privacy Law:

The Definition:

Regulation or statute that protects a person's right to be left alone, and         governs collection, storage, and release of his or her financial, medical, and   other personal information.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/privacy-law.html

There is no law in the UK that covers people for invasion of there privacy, un-like places like France that are very strict on there privacy and protected by the law. The only cover we can some time call upon is the Humans Right Act of 1998 with in European law. So this is a very dark area, stars and people with money can call upon a super injuction to try and stop anything being printed or shown about them, but for people like you and me, we have nothing to cover us in the UK

The good thing about this:

The public get to find out about all types of public figures, like stars and politicians, the good and the bad is laid out in news papers every day for you to buy and read.

The bad side about this:

The press and others can over step the make, they will take nude photos of princess, they will show stars at there worst point and invade there family times and holidays and it seams that they will go to extra ordinary lengths to get that one shot that others cant, this mean no one has any privacy.

Yes you can argue that if they our out there flaunting it all the time, why should the press not chase them all the time, but every one need some privacy, special in grieving and the press don’t always allow this and there is not laws that can stop them.

Example:

Google faces landmark fine for 'gross invasion of privacy' Google faces being the first company to incur heavy fines under British privacy laws, after admitting downloading private emails and passwords.

Britain’s Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, announced yesterday that he is launching a new investigation into the Street View project, in which Google sent cars around photographing residential streets.

In the process, they “mistakenly” collected entire emails and passwords from privately owned computers connected to wireless networks.
In this example you see the word law being used, but this is to cover the secrecy act as they have stolen by there emails and they are most probable using the human rights act to take them to court