legal issues

intellectual property rights(IP law)

IP law protects your ideas from other people trying to exploit them.

intellectual property acts is if you worked to produce a piece of work or design and protects that work from other people using it.

• trademarks
• copy rights
• patents
• design rights

trademarks

• Trademarks are used to protect brands applied to a name or logo
• renewed every 10 years
• can register a trademark worldwide

copy right

• automatically applied for documents, photo, maps, websites
• record when and how it was created
• last for 70 years after your lifetime
• sign contract so its the businesses property rather than the writers
• design rights there are automatic and free unregistered design rights (the way your product looks)

patents- (detailed description of idea and everything involved in it. make sure no one steals idea)

• if you invent a new product
• last for up to 20 years
• can be complicated or expensive
• legal investment

Star Wars copyright issue

If Lucasfilm could convince the courts the 3D works were sculptures, they would be protected by copyright for the life of the author plus 70 years.

libel

you can save a lawsuit if the media product is produced containing information about someone which is untrue or damaging their reputation. This can be in written form, imagery use or radio broadcast. 

data protection act (DPA)

if you collect data about individual during the creation of a media product then the DPA must be adhered to or you could face a suit.

8 principles of DPA

1. need permission, customer consent
2. only kept for reasons
3. needs to be accurate and up to date
4. only kept for as long as needed
5. data needs to be available to customer
6. needs to be processed in the UK

Copyright, designs and patent act 1988

if you have created a piece of music, recording or images then you have control of when other people use it.

slander- carries same legal implications as libel and involves making false statements in the spoken word.

human rights act 2014

human rights- values that keep society fair, just and equal.

• human rights protects everyone
• freedom of speech
• European convention on human rights
• puts rights and freedom at the heart of society
• freedom of expression
• in 1998 uk parliament passed the human rights act
• done to make It part of law.

Legal issue/ law	Explanation of the law	Application of media	examples
Intellectual property	intellectual property acts is if you worked to produce a piece of work or design and protects that work from other people using it.	allows you to stop other people rom using your work that you have created	Star Wars. gringo LTD
libel	you can save a lawsuit if the media product is produced containing information about someone which is untrue or damaging their reputation. This can be in written form, imagery use or radio broadcast.	if someone damages your reputation you can give them a law suit.	Katie hopkins, Washington post
Data protection act	if you collect data about individual during the creation of a media product then the DPA must be adhered to or you could face a suit.	businesses like facebook only using your data for the right reasons, not for advertisement.	facebook
Copyright, designs and patents act 1998	if you have created a piece of music, recording or images then you have control of when other people use it.	if you create a song, you can decide who uses it and when they do it.	anne muir