Legal & ethical considerations, codes of practise and

regulations

Gap travel needs to be aware of the Copyright designs and patents act it in
1988. Once you are registered, your protected for 70 years of the first
publication, or 70 years since the death of the author. There are a few types of
work covered by the act, such as, literacy, musical, films, dramatic, artistic,
typographical arrangement of published editions & sound recordings.
There's a difference between copyright and patents, copyright applies to
written or recorded work and patents apply to inventions or ideas. With
copyright, you cant copy Names, slogans or titles, because they are not
covered.
If its the work of another individual, then the law applies and you can't copy or
download their work without their consent. Sometimes you can apply for a
trademark which can cover you with most things but It still isnt okay to copy
other peoples work, regardless if you can make money or not. You need legal
consent from the original author.
It makes no difference how work is stored and published on the internet, the
law still applies with the copyright, designs and patents act. To prove copyright
infringement, you must have a valid copyright because only the owner, or his
exclusive licence can bring proceedings in the courts against and infringement.
To use other peoples songs or CDs you need to have a license to prove author
consent. Because if you were thinking of playing songs to the public, there are
a few legalities you need to be aware of, especially when you have to have
permission of the author of the songs/samples before you contemplate
uploading their work.
Privacy invasion can affect anyone, public figures, celebrities and all people in
general. People can still have their details made public without consent.
 Ethical considerations
Confidentiality of information:
When working on a media product, you can be restricted on what you can and
cannot do. This is to protect people from being insulted or insulting others, like
being racist, homophobic or sexist. These restrictions are put in place, as it
could offend a lot of people, which may then lead to serious problems.
The storage of information should only be used in certain circumstances. It
should only be used when it is necessary such as when it's needed to maintain
confidential and private information. This information can be can be stored in
lots of ways such as electronically. Some of this information could be relating
to new product design or a marketing strategy and even software code and all
of this is confidential.

Privacy laws: Privacy laws are put in place to protect peoples personal
information being leaked onto websites or being broadcasted worldwide.
Things such as phone numbers, home addresses, credit card digits, money,
finance, payments and bills, passwords or email addresses, because this
violates peoples privacy and it also goes against confidential laws too.

Decency laws: Public decency is a significant level of behaviour which is usually

acceptable to the public on most cases and is not obscene, disgusting or
shocking to those who witness it. If you disobey public decency, its a common
law offence which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment. The criminal laws,
was founded in 1977, preserved the common law offence of conspiracy to
those disobeyed with the public morals or outrage public decency.

Libel laws: Libel is pictures or statements published in writing or print, which

could be further broadcasted in the media, such as on TV, in film or the radio.
To be made as Libel, the publication doesnt have to be produced for one
person or more.
Representation of the following:
When making a website or promoting a product, like Gap Travel you need to
be aware of the target audience and how it appeals to everyone. It needs to be
targeted at People of different ethnic backgrounds, races, religions, gender and
sexuality. Gap Travel is a product based on people between the ages of 16-30,
who want a change of lifestyle for a while, to take a gap year or a short break.
Gap Travel offers unique opportunities & activities to do. So, the product
needs to be balanced for everyone.
Gender is very important, it must be gender neutral and have a wide range of
choices for both male and female. The product also needs to fit people
between the ages of sixteen and thirty, people in late twentys might want a
relaxing vacation or road trip, where as someone in their teenage years might
want to do thrilling activities.
So, its allowing plenty of options in Gap Travel for everyone, that can or want
to go with the company. The product also needs to be targeted to people of
different sexualities, e.g.) heterosexual, homosexual, etc. As Its wrong to
discriminate someone because of their sexuality, it shouldnt matter who they
are, because everyone should to be excepted & allowed to do what they want.
Gap Travel allows everyone to be a part of the product. They dont leave
specific types of people out because of their gender, sexuality, race or religion.
Because it's seen as wrong and discriminating. And you can typically get into
trouble or hear about, a lot of bad publicity if this was the happen.
Religion is quite a big area that needs to be covered. There are many different
types of races and religions worldwide. They support different beliefs; different
laws and they have different opinions. Some religions must wear certain
clothes or accessories. Some religions support fasting, where you go through a
certain amount of time of day, without eating food until late at night again.
Some religions only eat certain food and other religions cant eat some meat,
as they have beliefs or worshiping over that specific that animal. Jewish people
eat Kosher, Muslims eat Halal. Catholics celebrate Christmas in winter as an
annual event for their beliefs, as do many other religions but some cannot
celebrate it. Some religions support festivals of other celebration. There are
differences all around the world, therefore, we must appeal to the whole
target audience. Gap Travel will have to make sure everyones needs and
preferences are considered, Otherwise, its seen as discrimination.
Codes of practice and regulations:

OFCOM: The Office of Communications, is typically referred to as OFCOM, is

a competition authority for postal industries, telecommunications and
broadcasting. It represents citizens and/or consumer interests by protecting
the public from offensive or hurtful material. OFCOM is based around, codes
and policy's, licensing, research, competition, complaints and protecting the
radio spectrum from abuse or harmful sources.

Advertising standards authority: Are also known as the ASA, is an

organisation. Its code of advertising practice reflects legislation in many cases.
The ASA isn't funded by the British government, but only partially in the
industry of advertising. Its role is to investigate any complaints made about
adverts, direct marketing or sales promotion. The ASA regulates those contents
in the UK.

British interactive media association: The British interactive media

association, is also known as the BIMA, represents the digital industry in the
U.K. The BIMA was founded in 1985, it's a membership organization, is more or
less made up of digital agencies.