Legal and Ethical Issues that affect the Interactive Media Industry

Ethical and Legal issues are two kinds of issues that are brought up in organizations. they are two terms that often clash, but at the same time work together with one another on occasions. An ethical issue is rooted in the morals that call for an individual/ company to choose between alternatives, that can be seen as ethical or unethical. It is an act or a situation that affects the organization or other individuals that can be perceived as wrong or right. A legal issue is defined by a question or a situation that involves the application of principles of law. Legal issues arise due to an in-adherence or the noncompliance with the principles of law which can be considered as an offence against the law. These issues are usually punishable by law and carry consequences that are decided by the governing law.

Ethical and Legal issues often overlap each other, which can make it hard to tell the difference between the two. However, it is important to know and understand the difference between them and how they are dealt with. Ethical issues are not governed by a set of rules with in turn are not punishable by law. Whereas legal issues have a set of rules on which that are based, which are punishable by law if the rules are not adhered by.

Below you will find the Ethical and Legal issues that commonly affect the Interactive Media Industry, along with some examples of what they are and how they could affect you.

Legal  

Intellectual property rights (IP) - These rights are customarily divided into two main areas, copyright and rights to related copyright and industrial property. Copyright and rights related to copyright are the rights of an author/artist  which are protected by copyright, for a minimum of a 50 year period after the death of the creator. The main purpose of copyright and rights related to copyright is to encourage and reward the creator for their creative work. Industrial property can be divided into a further two main areas, one area can be characterized as the protection of distinctive signs such as trademarks and geographical indications. This protection aims to stimulate, ensure fair competition and to protect consumers. The other type of industrial property are protected to stimulate innovation, design and the creation of technology. This would cover inventions being protected by patents, industrial designs and trade secrets.

Below is a clip explaining a case between Artists, Vanilla Ice, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury of a copyright claim that David Bowie and Freddie Mercury filed against Vanilla Ice for the reason of his hit song Ice Ice Baby had sampled but not credited David Bowie and Freddie Mercury's song Under Pressure.

Intellectual Property rights, would have a major part in my life and my future prospects, as it would have to be taken in consideration in anything I do and in anything I choose to do it the future, for example, being an amateur content creator when it comes to making videos to upload, I have to be extremely careful and give accreditation or gain permission to anyone whose clips or audio I have used within the video if they are not my own. On the other end of the spectrum it would affect me if my work was used without my knowledge as that could possibly lead into legal preceding's.

Data Protection Act 2018 - The Data Protection Act is an act of parliament which was originally passed in 1988. It was developed to control personal and customer information is used by organizations and governing bodies. It also protects and lays down rules for people, for how their data can be used. 

The Data Protection Act has since been replaced by the General Data Protection Regulations in May 2018.

An example of a breach of this act would be The data breach's Facebook has had over the years. In total over 2 billion Facebook users information had been leaked between the years of 2013 and 2021. Resulting in the Facebook users to be subjected to spam, phishing, cyber attacks and identity theft.

Data Protection affects me as it is not only what protects me from having my data used in the wrong way or a way in which I haven't given consent to. But it will also help me in being able to provide the reassurance to anyone that I wouldn't use their data or information in an unlawful manner and without their consent during my future prospects.

Defamation - Defamation is a communication that injures a persons or organizations reputation, honour or dignity in front of a third party. Defamation can come in two types which are libel and slander. Libel defamation is when a person or organizations reputation, honour or dignity has been injured in a written form, for example via the newspapers or social media. Slander defamation is when a person or organizations reputation, honour or dignity has been injured in an oral form, for example spoken communication between 2 parties. If an act of defamation has been committed it can constitute a tort or a crime.

Below is an example of Defamation, which is the case between actress Amber Heard and Actor Johnny Deep, in which Johnny Deep was suing Amber Heard for Libel Defamation via an article which was posted in the Washington Gazette.

Defamation could affect me and my future prospect by if I decide to set up and run my own business in the future it could lead to damaging the morale and teamwork within the workplace as well as lead to job loss. It could also affect me as if I am being the one targeted by the patently false claims and accusations it could lead to many personal effects such as insecurity, anxiety to potentially worse circumstances.

Contracts and Employment Law - Contracts and Employment Law is form on contract that is signed both by an employer and employee. It is a contract that is used in labour law to define and outline the rights and responsibilities between both parties. There are many different types of contracts, to name a few you have a fixed term contract, a full time or part time contract for an indefinite period of time and a zero hour contract. A fixed term contract is a contract signed between parties for a time period which has been decided in advance, this type of contract could also end when a specific task has been completed or a specific event has taken place. A full time or part time contract is a contract signed between an employee and employer where the employee is taking on permanent work. It is the most common contract used within a work place and consists of the rights, responsibilities, conditions, and terms of work within it. A zero hour contract is usually use when work or a job is done over a sporadic time basis. Workers on a zero hour contract will be deemed as on call to come in, this also gives the worker the option to decline work if called in by an employer.

When you are working with staff or clients it is important that both parties know exactly what is being worked towards and what is expected of them, this is called working to a brief. A brief is what kind of relationship both parties involved will have for the duration of the task at hand, and can be passed over either verbally or it can be documented.

With any contract they will come with consequences if a breach of contract happens, reason being because a contract is a legally binding agreement between the parties involved. If a breach of contract was to occur it could lead to penalties such as termination of your contract and loss of job, in extreme cases of a breach of contract the penalties can be much more severe leading to a Payment of Damages. These damages could include punitive, compensatory, liquidated and nominal payments depending on the severity of the damages if any left behind.

An example of a breach of contract is when Netflix had filed a lawsuit against Relativity Media for a breach of contract. In this case Netflix was accusing Relativity Media with selling rights to 5 particular films to Rival streaming services such as Amazon and Starz. The five films in question had previously been licensed to Netflix. This was considered a breach of contract as Netflix was accusing Relativity Media they had not only sold licensing to Rival streaming services but had also not being fulfilling their contractual obligations for months.

An employment contract could affect me as it would be a contract I would read and sign so that i understood my duties and responsibilities within the work place as well as other key information such as entitlement to sick pay, holiday days, pension scheme if any. As well as all this I would also be signing that I understand whether I am full time or part time, and that periodically my contract would be up few review based on my performance within the workplace.

2010 Equality Act (EQA) - The 2010 Equality Act is an act of parliament. Before 2010 there were many different acts including, The Equal Pay Act 1970, The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to name a few. In 2010 they were all merged together to form the Equality Act. The purpose of doing this merge was to put all the acts together as one law and make them easier to understand. One of the topics that the 2010 Equality act covers is the accessibility of all UK websites and to promote and fair and equal society. Although it does not specifically state websites, it has come under the consensus for the reference of "provision of a service" which would imply a commercial website. Under the Statutory Code of Practice which is in the Equality & Human Rights Commission, it explicitly states that websites are included under the EQA in the form of provision of services.

For an example of a case involving the accessibility of their website, there is one where Mr Mcguire, who is blind, filed to complaints against Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. the complaints were for unlawful disability discrimination. Mcguire vs SOCOG

Website accessibility for all users no matter their abilities or disabilities is very important and if not considered could affect me massively for future prospects. When it comes to my content creation I have done my best to try and make it accessible to everyone to the best of my ability whether that's integrating speech to text which creates closed captions to those who are hard of hearing or making sure that any websites or pages have the correct and up to date versions of integration for those who have loss of sight. Reason why it is so important is because from a business point of few I would be limiting myself myself to a average spectrum, where as I could be making my products more accessible to widen my target market.

Ethical

Why are ethics important? - Ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong behaviour., in the terms of obligations, benefits to society, fairness or specific virtues. Ethics refers to these standards that impose and reasonable obligations to not committing a crime. Ethics also refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards.