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
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.
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.
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.
Privacy Law:
The Definition:
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
