LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSTRAINTS

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and
typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used.

The rights cover: broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the
public.

This is a CIVIL law not a CRIMINAL law.

This means it is not a criminal offence to break the law, which could result in a fine or jail sentence.

Instead, the person who owns the copyright has to sue the person they believe has broken the law. The case is
then heard in a civil court and if the person is found guilty of breaking copyright law then they will have to pay
damages to the owner of the copyright. The amount of damages is set by the court.

 
Types of work protected
Literary  
Song lyrics, manuscripts, manuals, computer programs, commercial documents, leaflets, newsletters and articles
etc.
Dramatic  
Plays, dance etc.
Musical  
Recordings and score.
Artistic  
Photography, painting, sculptures, architecture, technical drawings/diagrams, maps, logos.
Typographical arrangement of published editions
Magazines, periodicals, etc.
Sound recording
May be recordings of other copyright works, e.g. musical and literary.
Film  
Video footage, films, broadcasts and cable programmes.
The Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations 1992 extended the rules covering literary works to include
computer programs.

Duration of copyright
For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works: 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last
remaining author of the work dies.
If the author is unknown, copyright will last for 70 years from end of the calendar year in which the work was
created, although if it is made available to the public during that time, by publication, authorised performance,
broadcast, exhibition etc, then the duration will be 70 years from the end of the year that the work was first made
available.
Sound Recordings: 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was created or, if the work is
released within that time, 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was first released.
Films: 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last principal director, author or composer dies.
If the work is of unknown authorship: 70 years from end of the calendar year of creation, or if made available to
the public in that time, 70 years from the end of the year the film was first made available.
Typographical arrangement of published editions: 25 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work
was first published.
Broadcasts and cable programmes: 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the broadcast was made.
Application
The Copyright Law means that you cannot copy another person's property. The rights of this law cover
broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public
or any product that they have produced. If a company or person was to copy their contents or logos
they could end up getting sued or fined for a sum of money as the Copyright Law is considered a civil
law.
A magazine company could sue other businesses/companies/people for copying their logo,articles,
photos and magazines but if the magazine company in question copied another company's logo or
photos then that magazine company could get sued or fined for a certain amount of money as the
Copyright law is a civil law not a criminal law.
Grazia’s articles and images must be original or have permission in place to use any copyrighted
material If they did not follow this Grazia would get sued for copyright infringement. This can be
avoided by ensuring all content is original - images and text - or they must have permission to use
anything that is protected under copyright law.

Equality Act 2010

This law legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of:
⮚ Age
⮚ Being or becoming a transsexual person
⮚ Being married or in a civil partnership
⮚ Being pregnant or on maternity leave
⮚ Disability
⮚ Race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
⮚ Religion/belief or lack of religion/belief
⮚ Sex
⮚ Sexual orientation

This is a CRIMINAL law.

Therefore anyone who is considered to be breaking the law could be arrested. It would result in a criminal trial
which if found guilty could result in a fine or jail sentence.

Application
This law means that you cannot discriminate against anybody no matter of age, gender, race, marital
status, being pregnant or on maternity leave, being or becoming a transsexual person, disability,
religion or lack of belief and sexual orientation. The Act of 2010 is considered a criminal law so if the
company or person in question broke it they could face being arrested for discrimination against that
person for their race, age, gender etc.
A magazine company must include people of any age, gender, marital status, race, sex, sexual
orientation, religion or belief and disability if they refuse because of that persons age, gender, marital
status, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief and disability then the magazine company could
come underfire.
Grazia must not exclude people of any age, gender, marital status, race, sex, sexual orientation,
religion or belief and disability. They must ensure that none of their content is discriminatory against
these social groups in the images or text.
 Intellectual property
What intellectual property is
Having the right type of intellectual property protection helps you to stop people stealing or copying:
⮚ the names of your products or brands
⮚ your inventions
⮚ the design or look of your products
⮚ things you write, make or produce

Copyright, patents, designs and trademarks are all types of intellectual property protection. You get some types of
protection automatically, others you have to apply for.

You own intellectual property if you:

⮚ created it (and it meets the requirements for copyright, a patent or a design
⮚ bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner
⮚ have a brand that could be a trade mark e.g. a well known product name

If you believe anyone has stolen or copied your property you would sue them in civil court.

Types of protection
The type of protection you can get depends on what you’ve created. You get some types of protection
automatically, others you have to apply for.

Automatic protection

Protection you have to apply for

Type of protection Examples of intellectual property Time to allow for application
Trade marks Product names, logos, jingles 4 months
Appearance of a product including, shape,
Registered designs 1 month
packaging, patterns, colours, decoration
Inventions and products, eg machines and machine
Patents Around 5 years
parts, tools, medicines

Application
The intellectual property law is having the right to get protection for your product such as designs,
things you have written or produced and your inventions. If the company or person in question broke
the law they could be sued or fined as this is a civil law. So they would need to ask permission from all
the brands they use in their product to avoid getting sued.0
A magazine company could get protection over their products such as designs, logos, photos and
things they have written or produced. if the company in question breaks this law by stealing someone
else's intellectual property then they could get sued or fined as this is a civil law.
Grazia could get intellectual property rights over the logos, designs and photos they have taken and if
someone used their logo, photos and designs then they could be sued for breaking this law. If Grazia
used somebody's intellectual property without their permission then Grazia could get sued or fined
for using somebody else's property without their knowledge or permission. So they need to ensure all
their logos, designs and layouts and ideas are original.

Obscene Publications Act 1959

For the purposes of this Act an article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect or (where the article comprises
two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and
corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter
contained or embodied in it.

In this Act ‘article’ means any description of an article containing or embodying matter to be read or looked at or
both, any sound record and any film or other record of a picture or pictures.

This is a criminal law.

Application
The Obscene Publications Act means things like extreme violence or pornography cannot be shown in
that product as it could deprave or corrupt a person who are likely to come across it either reading,
seeing or hearing the matter involved which could corrupt them. The Obscene Publications act is
considered a criminal law meaning that the person or company that broke this law would be arrested
for breaking it.

If a magazine company depicted extreme violence which could corrupt or deprave someone then the
person who published it could get arrested as this is a criminal law so the magazine company in
question must not depict anything that could corrupt or deprave others.

If Grazia depicted extreme violence or pornography which could deprave or corrupt someone then
they could get arrested as the Obscene Publications act is considered a criminal law so Grazia would
not be able to depict anything that could be considered obscene or harmful to others.

Trespass
This is a civil law.
Trespass to land consists of any unjustifiable intrusion by a person upon the land in possession of another.
Civil trespass is actionable in the courts.

Application
The Trespass law is to prevent people going on others’ properties without the permission of the
owner or the company. This would be considered a civil law meaning that the person/ people who
trespassed would be held accountable by being fined or sued for a sum of money. 0

If a magazine company wanted to take a photoshoot somewhere private or wanted to get an

interview somewhere private they would need documented evidence of permission to.

If Grazia wanted to take a photoshoot somewhere or wanted to get an interview somewhere they
would need to get permission from the company or owner of that property and have it documented.

Privacy
The introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998 incorporated into English law the European Convention on Human
Rights.

Article 8.1 of the ECHR provides an explicit right to respect for a private life:
Article 8 protects your right to respect for your private life, your family life, your home and your correspondence
(letters, telephone calls and emails, for example).
 
Privacy Law is a law which deals with the use of people’s personal information and making sure they aren't
intruded upon. These laws make sure people can't have their information wrongly used without permission.
The effect this has on radio:
This means that they can't tell the listeners people’s full names or any private details they don't want revealed. For
example if a viewer calls in but they don't want their name to be revealed then they can't say it.

The effect this has on television:

This is also basically the same as radio, they can't use people’s full names without their consent. This also means
that if they take footage of someone they need to get that person’s permission before they air it on television.

Anyone who believes their right has been broken can make a civil claim in the courts against those they believe
have invaded their privacy.

When applying the legal principles the court will balance the claimant's right to privacy against the right to
freedom of expression.

If the claimant is proved to be correct this could result in an injunction banning publication of information;
damages; and return or destruction of the material gained from the intrusion.

Application
The privacy law means that you cannot wrongly use someone’s private information such as address,
personal information which they would not want shared with the public like family, age and home life.
without that person's permission and if that person or company did they could end up getting sued for
an invasion of privacy as this is classed as a civil law.
If a magazine company publicly published another person's private information then they could get
fined or sued as it is a civil law.
If Grazia used somebody's information in an article or magazine then they would have to make sure it
doesn’t invade their personal life such as a celebrities or persons home life cause that could involve
certain things such as private conversations and that would end up with Grazia being sued for invasion
of privacy. So Grazia would need to carefully check their images and text content to avoid including
personal information such as addresses and phone numbers.

Defamation Act 2013

This Act reformed defamation law on issues of the right to freedom of expression and the protection of
reputation. It also comprised a response to perceptions that the law as it stood was giving rise to libel tourism and
other inappropriate claims.

The Act changed existing criteria for a successful claim, by requiring claimants to show actual or probable serious
harm (which, in the case of for-profit bodies, is restricted to serious financial loss), before suing for defamation in
England or Wales.

It also enhanced existing defences, by introducing a defence for website operators hosting user-generated content
(provided they comply with a procedure to enable the complainant to resolve disputes directly with the author of
the material concerned or otherwise remove it), and introducing new statutory defences of truth, honest opinion,
and "publication on a matter of public interest“.

LIBEL
A written, published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation.

SLANDER
Making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.
Defamation is a civil law and so you would need to sue someone who you believe has damaged your reputation.

Application
The Defamation Act means that you cannot harm another person’s or place's reputation publicly
unless the claims you are reporting on are true as it would be considered slander or libel and the
person harmed by that could sue you for defamation this is because defamation is classed as a civil
law.
If a magazine company falsely accused a company or person that could be considered libel.
Grazia being a gossip and fashion magazine would be allowed to report on brands, companies and
people as long as it is the truth if they posted something which was false they could be sued for
defamation, unless they are clear that what they are saying is speculation. They would need to make
sure that their sources are trustworthy and reliable and that the information they are being told isn’t
false.

Ethical Constraints

Ethical Constraints are moral issues that are determined by the public instead of by a court. Ethical
constraints are not linked to a law. If an Ethical line was crossed then the public would complain to the
company, publisher or online they could also report it to the company. This could damage the reputation
of a company. Crossing the ethical lines can result in offending the audience; this could result in losing
the audience and complaints to the regulatory bodies which would affect the reputation of a company.

Protecting under 18s

This constraint means that you could not produce content that could depict anything that could deprive
or corrupt people who are under the age of 18 this means that a magazine, film etc could not involve
inappropriate things such as swearing, nudity or extreme violence as this could impact the mental of
those under the age of 18.

A magazine company would not be able to depict material that might seriously impair the physical,
mental or moral development of people under eighteen. If a magazine company does not follow this the
magazine could get sent back and the company could receive backlash from the public which could harm
their reputation resulting in less people buying their magazines to avoid this they must double check
their magazines, make sure it is aimed towards the proper age group and if it is for people under the age
of 18 then they must remove the content that could result in mental, physical or moral damage to the
children.

Grazia would not be able to depict anything that is inappropriate for under 18s as teenage girls could
buy Grazia’s magazines and if they used nude imagery or violent imagery this could potentially harm the
teenage girls. Also they would receive severe backlash from parents and the general public to the point it
would both hurt their reputation and force them to take the magazine off of shelves. They could avoid
this by checking their magazines and making sure they are aimed towards the proper audience but also
removing anything that could harm them.

Representation
Media content is used to create a construct of reality of people, places and events. This involves
representation through the content released by the media companies. The content shown can portray
stereotypes that will either have a negative or positive connotation. Stereotypes are used to represent a
group of people. The stereotypes that are usually used in media content can often be negative and
offensive and used in comedy content.

Magazine companies would need to ensure that they do not create or rely on negative stereotypes with
their content, both written content and text that could portray any negative stereotypes of people. They
can avoid this by carefully checking their advertisements and making sure it follows the guidelines of the
code.

Grazia must not publish content that could construct a negative stereotype as this could offend people
of the public resulting in backlash which would negatively impact the reputation of Grazia resulting in a
loss of readers and money. Grazia must carefully check over their magazines and make sure that no
ethical lines are crossed.

Production methods
Producing content in unethical ways such as using hidden microphones, interviewing vulnerable people
or children, presenting an individual or their views as being representative of an entire group or people
and using off record information. Journalists, interviewers and paparazzi must not use methods that
would be considered unethical such as hidden microphones or interviewing the vulnerable as this could
be seen as a company taking advantage of those who aren’t in the right state and can be seen as
deception this would result in the companies reputation declining resulting in magazines not being
bought.

A magazine company would have to make sure they do not deceive a person and children who would be
considered vulnerable as they can be easily manipulated by the media. They must avoid using hidden
microphones, off record information and information that could be representative as a group as a whole
or people as a whole if they breach this code of conduct it could result in their reputation being
tarnished.

Grazia would have to avoid using impressionable people such as children or unstable people as they
could be easily misconstrued in the media. They must avoid using deceitful ways such as hidden
microphones or using information that would be off record as this could cause the reputation of Grazia
to decline drastically.

Content
A company would have to include appropriate text and images and avoid using false information and
make sure that the information is accurate they must also avoid using content that could offend anybody
and they must avoid influencing the public opinion on matters. This could result in the company being
complained at resulting in loss in reputation.

A magazine company would have to avoid using false information and make sure that the information
comes from a reliable source they must also avoid using content that could avoid using content that
could offend or influence the readers of this magazine company could affect the reputation of the
company.

Grazia would have to avoid using gossip that involves false information. They must make sure that the
content that they present in their magazines doesn’t involve any content that could offend anybody and
Grazia must make sure that their content does not influence the opinion of the audience of Grazia. If
Grazia didn’t follow this ethic then they would suffer from backlash that could result in damage to their
reputation and a loss of brand deals.