Legal & Ethical Considerations

Copyright law originated in the United Kingdom from a concept of common law; the Statute
of Anne 1709. It became statutory with the passing of the Copyright Act 1911. The current
act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The laws were implemented to make
sure people who created some kind of work and prevent people from stealing your work to
benefit themselves.
Before this law was an act people could copy someones work and claim that the work was
from them. This was a big problem to companys so they decided to have this act mainly on
the web due to it is open to the world and it is easier to steal work from the web such as
images, videos and music. These assets are included in my product so this is why I need to
consider where I get my assets from. The copyright law protects the IT industry because
mainly copyrighting takes place on the web.
Assets
Images are popular target for copyright. Images such as logos are sometimes copyrighted
so no one can use there logo for beneficial purposes. The person who creates an image
(the creator), such as somebody who takes a photo, will generally be the owner of the
original copyright. However, if it was created as part of the creators job, the employer will
generally own the copyright. Images on the internet may have the copyrighted symbol in
front of the image to prevent anyone using it however some images dont. The copyright
symbol does not have to be present for copyright to exist, so just because there is no name
or copyright symbol associated with a photo or image does not mean the copyright has
expired. If you want to gain permission to use the image you will need to contact the owner
who is the creator of the image and sort an agreement. Most of the time the agreement is
through paying for the image however you may not have to pay. They might ask you to
instead of gaining full copyright of the image you could just get permission to use it. This is
the same with other assets such as videos. Videos can also be copyrighted so before you can
use the video you must ask permission to use the video and might have to put a disclaimer
in the video. Other assets like sound can also be copyrighted
Software can be a copyright problem too. If you buy a software package legally which allows
you to use the software for yourself this means that you do not own that software. The
software company allows you to use it but only for yourself so you cannot claim the product
to be yours or illegally transfer the software to someone else. Also some websites offer
instructions on softwares which are required to be bought. These websites provide crack
codes to allow users all over the world to use the software for free and this is illegal. Each
software usually contains a license to that individual computer. If the software is on a disk
therefore it can only be used for one computer machine. However people burn the software
onto another disk and give the software to another person. This is illegal and would need to
buy another license in order to use it again. This law is the same with schools where each
computer must have a different license.

In order I do not break any laws or offend anyone I need to make sure I do not get all my
images from a copyrighted source and I do not copy anyones work without permission. If I
want an image or video I need to contact the owner and ask them for permission before
using it in my product.
Ethical
When creating a multimedia product you need to ensure that you make the assets included
in the product suitable for the target audience. For example if the target audience were kids
you will need to ensure that anything you put in the product that wont offend the users.
Also this protects such as racist comments which will offend people and affect the product.
This will always be breaking the law and could cause a lot of problems. People may be most
likely to break the law on the internet because people may think that theyre anonymous.
But you can be tracked and found so everything needs to be considered before publishing to
the world. There is rules that can help you to avoid is.
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You arent allowed to use a picture, video or sound unless the person who has full
control of the assets give you permission to use them.
You cant make a written statement of someone which could offend them and any
abusive language which could affect their reputation.
You arent allowed to use anyones piece of work without permission (copyright law)
You have to be careful that you dont offend someone this goes by
Race
Gender (female and male)
Sexuality (homosexual and heterosexual)
Disability
Nationality
Class ( higher class or lower class)
Age ( adults and children)

On my product I made sure that I did not breach any of the above. I made sure that the
product was suitable for anyone for example different races and made sure any content on
my product wouldnt offend anyone. I did this by not using images that are copyrighted so I
will not break any laws. Also not using anyones work this includes any assets or design of
the product. Another way I did not break any ethical rules is that I made sure that the text in
my product didnt have any abusive language and made sure it is suitable for my target
audience. Some images I found had

Ofcom

Ofcom operates under a number of Acts of Parliament, including in particular the Communication
Act 2003. Ofcom must act within the powers and duties set for it by Parliament in legislation.
Accountable to Parliament, they set and enforce regulatory rules for the sectors for which they have
responsibility. They also have powers to enforce competition law in those sectors, alongside the
Competition and Markets Authority.
If someone is offended by a website or the website is using someones work without permission
they can report the product to this website and ofcam can either take down the website or report it
to the police.

PCC Press Complaints Commission

The PCC is an independent body which administers the system of self-regulation for the press. It
does so primarily by dealing with complaints, framed within the terms of the Editors' Code of
Practice, about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites, including
editorial audio-visual material)

BIMA

The British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is an industry body representing the digital
industry in the United Kingdom. Formed in 1985, BIMA is a membership organisation
primarily made up of digital agencies.
BIMA is dedicated to serving membership in the UK and abroad. They are active in
discussions with Government, leading industry players and other partner associations.
Globally, the also represent the UK multimedia industry.