Task 6 Copyright And Libel Debate

Task A06- Copyright and libel debate.

How does copyright law or libel affect the production of a magazine?:

• Copyright- means who owns the right to something that may be reproduced in a magazine, newspaper, website or other form of print media.

• Copyright lasts for 70 years from the end of the year of the authors death.

• Copyright covers editorial copy which is ‘literary’ meaning the written words of something such as a novel, play, song lyrics or piece of journalistic writing.

• Artistic works include- photographs, sketches, cartoons and graphics.

Source: the magazines handbook page 245.

Infringement of copyright

• A person will infringe copyright if he copies or reproduces a copyright work in any form for example….

• If a journalist was to take another journalists story & use it in another magazine and ‘rejig’ it, he may fail if the original version contains an error that the new version repeats.

Source: the magazines handbook page 246.

Ownership of copyright

• Copyright in a work belongs to its creator, unless it was produced in the course of an employment. In that event, copyright will belong to the employer unless the author’s contract provides otherwise. If the author is freelance, he owns the copyright unless he assigns it to the publisher.

Libel Action

• Libel- means when a newspaper or magazine is sued for publishing ‘defamatory’ words, meaning words that are the person who they were written about feels are untrue.

• Libel cases that are taken to court can be extremely expensive for the paper/ magazine concerned if that person wins, even if the newspaper/ magazine wins, the costs of recovery are enormous.

Libel cases

• Examples of Libel cases on the news: In recent years, there have been several famous libel cases involving celebrities.

• For example, when Katherine Zeta Jones and Michel Douglas sued Hello magazine for publishing photographs from an undercover photographer at their wedding when they had made an official deal with Hello magazine.

• Another example is when Naomi Campbell successfully sued the Mirror newspaper for libel damages when they published details that she had gone in to rehab.

The purpose of libel law•

Libel law protects individuals or organisations from unwarranted, mistaken or untruthful attacks on their reputation. A person is libelled if a publication:

• Exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt

• Causes them to be shunned or avoided

• Discredits them in their trade, business or profession

• Generally lowers them in the eyes of right thinking members of society

• Source: The BBC.co.uk

Task 6- Debate• How does copyright law or libel affect the production of a magazine?

• Do libel laws prevent freedom of speech and expression?

• Do celebrities have the right to be protected from stories written about them that are untrue or should they accept that it’s an inevitable part of being in the public eye? Explain how invasion of privacy and guidelines against using offensive material can affect the content of a magazine.

- Find 1 example of a libel case in which a celebrity sued a magazine for a story written about them/ photographs taken of them.

- - Find one example of a case where a print advert had to be withdrawn due to

complaints about the image being offensive/ explicit – use the advertising standards authority website to find examples.

- See the slides below for examples to help you.