Task 5: Legislation and the creative industries
Intellectual Property
What are talent releases?
What are location releases?
What are the rules about filming and performing in public in the UK?
While filming a large group of people in a private space will requite legal documents such as talent releases (either many individual or one group one) to be made and properly signed in order for somebody to legally film and release a media project which includes lots of people on screen at once in most situations, there are some scenarios where this is not required. Specifically, the United Kingdom has a rule known as the 'Freedom to photograph and film', which allows filming to be done of people in public spaces without these kind of legal permissions needing to be achieved. This is due to the "public" factor of said filming, and while requesting permission from members of the public is never discouraged, there are no English laws that prevent film-makers, photographers or any other kind of creator who may film or take photos in a space like this from creating images of the public.
How might child labour laws impact the creative industries?
Just like any other industry, creative jobs, such as acting for example, have certain rules, laws and regulations around them that revolver specifically around fair treatment of minors and labour laws for children. The existence of these laws can cause issues that may not exist while using of-age talent and workers, but can not be avoided due to some jobs such as child-acting needing to make use of children and not being able to be easily replaced by someone older. As an example of a common practise which is done while using young performers for TV or film, forced to be used due to child labour laws, is it very common when looking into the credits of a media product that has a young child actor, especially if that child is a baby, to find that two names will be connected to that role instead of one. This is due to the fact that children between ages two and five are not legally allowed to be worked for over three hours in one day, so in order to be able to film everything needed quicker, a role will be filled by two babies instead of one.
What is public liability insurance?
As well as the many other types of insurances which are useful to invest in, 'Public Liability Insurance' is a type of insurance which is very useful for businesses of all types, industries and sizes. The purpose of this insurance is so business owners can be protected from any damaging claims that may be made against the company that result in legal proceedings. If a legal matter is made out of said claims, the insurance will cover the cost of any expenses that will be needed as a result, or any compensation you are instead required to pay. For example, one of the most common triggers of a public liability claim occurring is 'negligence', such as a customer hurting themselves at your business, potentially due to you not warning the public of a wet floor or a broken piece of electrical equipment.
What is GDPR?
The GDPR is known fully at 'The General Data Protection Regulation' and was originally published back in 2016 on the 27th of April. This is an EU law and/or regulation based upon data protection and privacy in the European Union and Economic Area, being the toughest privacy and security law in the world. The UK GDPR sets out seven key principles that must be followed by any corporations that deal with people's personal date of any kind; these principles include 'Lawfulness, fairness and transparency', 'Purpose limitation', 'Data minimisation', 'Accuracy', 'Storage limitation', 'Integrity and confidentiality (security)', and finally 'Accountability'.
What is The Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002?
Someone's 'Intellectual Property' (often shortened to their 'IP') is most often the phrase that refers to a person's ownership of an idea or design that they came up with. The term is one used in property law, giving the person(s) who initially created whatever creative work/property in question certain exclusive rights to it, meaning that nobody else is legally allowed to copy or reuse said creation without first gaining permissions directly from the IP owner. As a result, the creative work is often treated similarly to a physical property/asset in importance.
Copyright (creative pieces, i.e., written work, moving image work, music, etc.)
Copyright (creative pieces, i.e., written work, moving image work, music, etc.)
The phrase 'copyright' refers to the assignable, exclusive right the creator of a piece of media or any other creation is given for a fixed number of years, in order to be able to use and distribute that creation they made; often, (unless stated otherwise like with 'royalty-free' pieces of music), others are not instantly allowed this right unless they directly pay for or ask for a license to be able to legally use it in whatever way they request. In the United Kingdom, a creator does not need to apply to have copyright over something they have made, but instead it is automatically assigned to them once they have created something. This means that the piece of work is then protected from others using it in order to benefit themselves without first reaching out for specific permissions from that creator. Not following copyright law could get somebody into massive legal trouble.
Trademarks
Often seen related to copyrighted materials, a 'Trademark' is a legal signifier which shows that whatever it is attached to is exclusively used by its owner, helping to distinguish the goods or services of one trader from another, taking the form of a slogan, logo, or sound for example (such as McDonalds' "I'm Lovin' It"). A trademark must be renewed each decade, and legally provides the highest possible level of protection for whatever service or product it is attached to from unauthorised use or plagiarism of said product/service.
Often seen related to copyrighted materials, a 'Trademark' is a legal signifier which shows that whatever it is attached to is exclusively used by its owner, helping to distinguish the goods or services of one trader from another, taking the form of a slogan, logo, or sound for example (such as McDonalds' "I'm Lovin' It"). A trademark must be renewed each decade, and legally provides the highest possible level of protection for whatever service or product it is attached to from unauthorised use or plagiarism of said product/service.
What are talent releases?
'Releases' are legal documents which must be filled out in order for a creative project. such as a movie or television show episode, to be legally recorded and aired with no issues. These types of forms grant the people in charge of the project full permissions to film wherever or whoever the release form states, on the dates it mentions. Talent releases in particular can come in three variants, individual, group or underage, each looking different and varying in simple ways. An individual form will consist of the name of the production, the talent's and director's name, a photo of the talent and the dates of the production, giving permission for said talent to appear in the production named once signed. Group forms are similar but slightly more simplified, as they are meant for large scenes where multiple people will be seen at a time, saving time instead of making lots of individual forms. Also, due to the legal aspect of the release forms, a signature of a legal adult is required, whether that be the talent themselves of their parent/carers', which s why a separate form for people aged under 18 exists, allowing an adult to sign on their behalf.
What are location releases?
Similar to talent releases, 'location releases' are pieces of pre-production paperwork which must be filled out in order to legally be able and allowed to film in the locations requested. These forms should be filled out for each location that was scouted and written about in the project's location recces, and decided to be where the crew want to and can physically work in. Releases e act as permission forms which must be signed and approved by both a member of the production and an owner of the location so the production crew of the film are legally allowed to film there on the dates and times they specify on the form. These are extremely essential in order for a crew or group to be able to legally create the media product they want to; even if the location is one of the crew's homes, a release form still must be filled out for it.
What are the rules about filming and performing in public in the UK?
While filming a large group of people in a private space will requite legal documents such as talent releases (either many individual or one group one) to be made and properly signed in order for somebody to legally film and release a media project which includes lots of people on screen at once in most situations, there are some scenarios where this is not required. Specifically, the United Kingdom has a rule known as the 'Freedom to photograph and film', which allows filming to be done of people in public spaces without these kind of legal permissions needing to be achieved. This is due to the "public" factor of said filming, and while requesting permission from members of the public is never discouraged, there are no English laws that prevent film-makers, photographers or any other kind of creator who may film or take photos in a space like this from creating images of the public.
How might child labour laws impact the creative industries?
Just like any other industry, creative jobs, such as acting for example, have certain rules, laws and regulations around them that revolver specifically around fair treatment of minors and labour laws for children. The existence of these laws can cause issues that may not exist while using of-age talent and workers, but can not be avoided due to some jobs such as child-acting needing to make use of children and not being able to be easily replaced by someone older. As an example of a common practise which is done while using young performers for TV or film, forced to be used due to child labour laws, is it very common when looking into the credits of a media product that has a young child actor, especially if that child is a baby, to find that two names will be connected to that role instead of one. This is due to the fact that children between ages two and five are not legally allowed to be worked for over three hours in one day, so in order to be able to film everything needed quicker, a role will be filled by two babies instead of one.
What is public liability insurance?
As well as the many other types of insurances which are useful to invest in, 'Public Liability Insurance' is a type of insurance which is very useful for businesses of all types, industries and sizes. The purpose of this insurance is so business owners can be protected from any damaging claims that may be made against the company that result in legal proceedings. If a legal matter is made out of said claims, the insurance will cover the cost of any expenses that will be needed as a result, or any compensation you are instead required to pay. For example, one of the most common triggers of a public liability claim occurring is 'negligence', such as a customer hurting themselves at your business, potentially due to you not warning the public of a wet floor or a broken piece of electrical equipment.
What is GDPR?
The GDPR is known fully at 'The General Data Protection Regulation' and was originally published back in 2016 on the 27th of April. This is an EU law and/or regulation based upon data protection and privacy in the European Union and Economic Area, being the toughest privacy and security law in the world. The UK GDPR sets out seven key principles that must be followed by any corporations that deal with people's personal date of any kind; these principles include 'Lawfulness, fairness and transparency', 'Purpose limitation', 'Data minimisation', 'Accuracy', 'Storage limitation', 'Integrity and confidentiality (security)', and finally 'Accountability'.
What is The Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002?
1998's 'Competition Act' in the UK was made in order to prohibit any business practise, agreement or conduct which could or will have any kind of purposeful damaging affect on a business's competition and/or consumers. For example, the act disallows a company that may hold a dominant position in their market from doing any business decisions which are planned with the intention of harming the market and abusing their dominant market position to do so, such as refusal to supply and/or provide access to essential facilities or imposing unfair trading terms, like exclusivity. 2002's 'Enterprise Act' is similar, being a piece of legislation involved in efforts to enforce the previously explained competition law, punishing any 'anti-competitive' behaviour which may be conducted in the country, with behaviours which may be punished include price fixing and bid-rigging.
References:
Intellectual Property: https://copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/intellectual_property#:~:text=Intellectual%20property%20(or%20IP)%20refers,trademarks%2C%20design%20rights%20and%20patents.
Copyright: https://copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law
Trademark: https://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/articles/what-is-a-trade-mark#:~:text=Trademarks%20are%20badges%20of%20origin,individual%20subjects%2C%20known%20as%20classes.
Child Labour Laws: https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/11598/why-are-twins-often-cast-for-young-roles#:~:text=The%20most%20important%20reason%20is,to%20be%20on%20the%20set.
Public Liability Insurance: https://www.hiscox.co.uk/business-insurance/public-liability-insurance/faq/what-is-public-liability-insurance
The GDPR: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/principles/
Public Filming Rules: https://www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/ph/photography-advice#:~:text=Freedom%20to%20photograph%20and%20film,photographing%20incidents%20or%20police%20personnel.
Competition Act 1998: https://www.orr.gov.uk/monitoring-regulation/rail/competition/competition-act-1998#:~:text=The%20Competition%20Act%201998%20prohibits,a%20way%20that%20harms%20competition.
https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/guides/competition-law---the-basics
Enterprise Act 2002: https://www.delta-net.com/compliance/competition-law/faqs/what-is-the-enterprise-act-2002#:~:text=The%20Enterprise%20Act%202002%20is,Act%202002%20across%20the%20UK.
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