Legal, Ethical, and Contractual Powerpoint

Ethical and Legal Issues

ConstraintsWhat is a constraint?

A constraint, in the TV and film industry is a legal obligation in the form of a limitation or restraint.

What types?

An example of a regulatory agency would be the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) – However the regulations that they abide by are not entirely legal.

A second regulation agency: BBFC – Regulates broadcast audience preferences and content production and presentation.

There are two types of constraints that are regulated in the TV and film industry.

1. Legal regulatory contractual obligations.

2. Constraints practiced but not entirely functional with law.

Employment Legislation• Employment Legislation or more

commonly known as ‘Employment Terms and Conditions’ are set standards and laws that stop employees from suffering from dangerous, unhealthy, or unsafe environments and situations.

• Employees are deemed fit to have the same equal rights to determine equality and safety.

Legislation

• The entire list of factors and regulations cover are:

• Pay• Contractual Obligation• Absences• Wage• Working hours• Clauses and employment

terms• Health and Safety

• Legislation covers most of the ethical and legal areas of the TV and film industry. Without it, many of the legal aspects of industry were be askew and uncontrollable, making production and overall creation processes impossibly difficult to handle.

Liability in LegislationLegislation covers the legal aspects of liability and financial tiffs in the industry. Legislation determines the cause and effect of scenarios and offers fair compensation and payment to the right parties to the right employees in the right circumstances. This is possible due to Employer Liability insurance as a mandatory legal term and effect.

Employer liability insurance was set out by the Employer Liability Act 1969.

PUBLIC LIABILITY

As film-making is an intricate process with many liabilities and issues on the road to completion, many other ethical terms and laws are placed in hindsight. For example:

Public liability comes in effect when, for example, a member of the public is injured due to the process of filming: E.g. They are injured by the set, loose cables or heavy equipment (Shooting cranes etc. etc.)

For such an issues, Public LIABILITY insurance should be implemented immediately due to the high rise of location production and Out Of Studio photography.

Employees and their rights• In present time, all employees are given equal rights and opportunities in their field of work.• These equal rights come in many forms, such as:

• Work Rights: What they are entitled to in working hours• Main Terms and conditions: Overall restrictions and obligations meant for each Employee• Wages: Payment• Holidays and holiday payment• Lay offs and short time working: contractual hours and terms meant for time changes.• Sickness• Time off• The right for training• The right for flexible hours• Health and Safety: Legal terms and insurance policies• Harassment and discrimination: Legal ethics in dealing with it• Bullying: Legal ethics in dealing with it• Trade Unions• Notice regulations• References

Equality

• Equal rights come hand in hand with ethical, legal, and fair terms in the workplace. There are a variety of laws that have been created. A few of these are:

• The Sexual Discrimination act: 1975 – Act to render unlawful certain kinds of sex discrimination and discrimination

• Race Relations Act 1976 - An Act to make fresh provision with respect to discrimination on racial grounds and relations between people of different racial groups; and to make in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 amendments for bringing provisions in that Act relating to its administration and enforcement into conformity with the corresponding provisions in this Act.

• Equal Pay Acts 1976 - An Act to prevent discrimination, as regards terms and conditions of employment, between men and women.

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 - An Act to make it unlawful to discriminate against disabled persons in connection with employment, the provision of goods, facilities and services or the disposal or management of premises; to make provision about the employment of disabled persons; and to establish a National Disability Council.

• Human Rights Act 1998 - An Act to give further effect to rights and freedoms guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights; to make provision with respect to holders of certain judicial offices who become judges of the European Court of Human Rights; and for connected purposes.

50/50 Diversification

Reference: http://www.legislation.gov.uk

Contract Additions

• Confidentiality • A ‘confidentiality’ agreement is a

clause of a contract which legally binds you, the contracted, to lawfully not explain or give out information regarding a production until further notice.

• E.g. Film names, plots, and your involvement in a movie can NOT be quoted or mentioned in writing or video.

There are two additions for every contract that should be noted:

• Exclusivity• Exclusivity is a contractual term

which implies that if you sign an exclusivity contract, you are only required (BY LAW) to work within that set part on the threat of legal action which may suspend payment and work if said contract is breached.

Intellectual PropertyIntellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.IP is divided into two categories: Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.

Reference: http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/

What is Copyright?

• Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of ‘original works’ and includes such things as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual creations, both published and unpublished. Copyright does not protect ideas. It only protects the specific and original expression of the idea. A good example of this is that there are many films and books based on the classic boy meets girl theme in which the girl’s parents disapprove of boy and after many tears, true love finally triumphs. This theme cannot be monopolized, but original works to it can be. The same can be said of all other works.

Reference: http://www.piperpat.com/IPInformation/Introduction/WhatisCopyright/tabid/92/Default.aspx

What are codes of practice?

• Codes of Practice set out how employees may act.

• Codes of practice (Unlike regulations of law) are not legally binding. They are specifically set out to stop certain actions and unethical tendencies by forming a link of agreement between content and it’s creators.

Codes of practice set out how people can act. Like many parts of regulation which we looked at before they are not legally binding, but set out to stop unethical actions by forming an agreement between content makers. For example;12.2 We expect independent producers to apply the highest professional and ethical standards in their dealings with BBC staff. In return, BBC staff will apply the same ethical standards of objectivity, integrity, confidentiality, fairness and honesty in dealing with independent producers.(Taken from the BBC’s Commissioning TV Code of

REPRESENTATION AND IT’S ETHICS

• How something is represented is a big deal in the movie industry: Do we choose to represent something in a good way or bad way? What repercussions could come of negative representation? Legal action is one possibility as well as reputable abandonment.

• What we can choose to represent:

• Groups• Religions• Issues• Individuals

How do producers remain ethical and objective in their representations?

• Simple. Producers require the analytical experience of lawyers, textbooks, and previous examples of legal action in order to determine which route is best taken and which one is best avoidable in terms of representation and subjectivity.

• From their consultations, they can determine content, representation, themes, and story that can either conflict, inform firmly, or completely avoid and issue or group.