Legal and Ethical Issues

 Legal

Intellectual Property Rights

This applies to the authorship and ownership of anything written, including fonts; artwork, including trademarked logos and symbols, for instance, the tick used by Nike; animation; theorems; scientific papers; parliamentary speeches; music, sound recordings, for example, the sound that signifies Netflix, anything that is protected by copyright, or trademark. This applies even after the death of the author unless permission is received from those responsible for the estate of the author. My personal experience of this is submitting an ekphrastic poem based on a painting in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery that was accepted. The artist had died quite a long time before, but the editor was unable to get permission to reproduce the painting from the family's estate, although she did apply, as required by law. A 'placeholder' image was used in the literary magazine instead, and a link to the painting was the closest she was able to get to its being used. I appreciated the effort she made on my behalf, but it was an education that you can't just use an image because you like it! 

Data Protection Act: Privacy

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), was implemented in the UK in 2018, this regulates how a company or organization stores and uses personal data, and protects the privacy of clients entrusting their personal details.

In the above example, around 87,000,000 personal details were 'harvested' for advertising from Cambridge Analytica during elections. 

Infamous breaches of trust and confidentiality do much harm to the integrity of businesses and corporations.

Libel and Slander

Libel is serious defamation of character in written form, most often by newspapers, although novels and other forms of literature, who appear to be using a 'character' as a thinly disguised attack on someone's character, have also found their way into courtrooms in the past. 

An example of this is Scarlett Johansson who sued French author, Gregoire Delacourt for, as she saw it, his writing her into his novel as a model who has multiple affairs. Unfortunately for her, the court did not agree with her belief that the book had defamed her, and lost her case, being awarded only a fraction of what she applied to gain. 

It's often celebrities we hear about who have these kinds of trials as they are fiendishly expensive, and highly revealing / exposing, which has its own high cost.

Slander is the spoken version of defamation. 

'He said - She said' - and a lot rides on who and what is believed in court. The aim is to prove that the defamation is entirely false. Any 'fuzziness' is costly in every way.

The moral of the story is - be sure what you say and write is true, and if there's no escaping the libelous, slanderous nature of the truth - keep silent. 

Equality Act 2010: Accessibility

This Act is a non-discrimination law that provides a legal structure to protect human rights in an equal society. This law, in terms of web design and layout, ensures the information is accessible to all users, taking into account users may have a variety of disabilities. 

4 main categories have to be taken into consideration and made accessible to all:

Language: This must be simple and clearly communicated, with an option for translation. While it is not a legal requirement to provide other languages, it is most certainly advantageous to all concerned, especially government sites or those relating to benefits, and they include an accessibility statement at the foot of their website.  They also provide templates to make this more accessible to their staff: 

[from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sample-accessibility-statement/sample-accessibility-statement-for-a-fictional-public-sector-website]

This shows their policy towards those with impaired motor efficiency in providing a keyboard option as opposed to using a mouse, plus the speech recognition facility; those with impaired visibility can increase the size of the text, and also have a screen reader. Other amendments are in providing subtitles and Alt. Text so that those who have hearing loss are able to access the information on the screen. 

Obscene Publications Act

This was passed as an Act in 1959 and amended slightly in 1964 to protect the populace from depravity and corruption being foisted on them, as determined by a test that's adhered to. 

A famous example was Oz Magazine, known for its satirical content. In 1970, fearing they were losing touch with their audience, and wishing to broaden their audience, they invited schoolchildren to edit the May edition, which proved to be a contentious decision. It led to a serious charge of 'conspiracy to corrupt public morals'. They were found not guilty on that count but sentenced for lesser offenses to a term in prison. 

The Act covers not only matters to do with sex but also extreme violence or abuse put out in the public area. 

Computer Misuse Act 

The main purpose of this Act is to protect against the threat of cybercrime, that is, hackers, malware, viruses, spyware - any unauthorized access to computer material, with a further criminal offense if plotting to use that information with ill-intent. 

Prince Phillip's contribution to our being currently protected was due to his own personal View-Data Message Box that was hacked by 2 ne'er-do-wells. But it seems the duo were trying to highlight the insecure nature of B.T's technology. the result, either way, is that the 1990 Act came into force.

Contracts

Contracts of employment are there to protect the interests of all parties involved. Some contracts include a N.D.A. or Non Disclosure Agreement, this might be applicable in situations such as to prevent the end of a TV series being revealed, or details about any possible sequels for films or books, or something that threatens national security. Trust is all-important.

A contract is an agreement entered into with full knowledge of intention and what is being agreed. Contracts can be hugely varied, detailed, and specific in length, terms, and complexity, but they must all include these 5 important elements in  order to be of legal standing:

* Offer.

• * Acceptance.
• * Awareness.
• * Consideration.
• * Capacity.

Clarity is key, as any 'fuzziness' of meaning, any clauses that could interpreted other than that which was intended is liable to problems if contested. Terms and conditions have to be agreed, but if there's any elasticity in meaning, the case in a court hearing can become complex, lengthy and expensive.

Lorraine Kelly, TV presenter, received an enormous tax bill and demand for National Insurance payments 4 years after she left the company she had signed a contract with. She appealed against the HMRC tax authority and it was put forward that she had not been an employee working for an employer, but that she had offered her services as an artiste; this was borne out by her not being eligible for holidays or sick pay, as other staff members were; she was also free to work on other jobs. 

Judge Dean said: "We did not accept that Ms Kelly simply appeared as herself - we were satisfied that Ms Kelly presents a persona of herself, she presents herself as a brand and that is the brand ITV sought when engaging her.' 

I sense a bit of fancy footwork there. Nimble work. A contract should keep everyone on their toes. 

Relationships with Clients

This is more of an ethical issue than a legal one, having to do with treating one's colleagues and clients with respect; without discrimination or preferential treatment based on skin colour, gender, religious practices and beliefs, or disabilities. 

It's also about keeping the relationship at work professional and not personal; elastic boundaries can lead to problems that could have been avoided. Much like a contract, but not legally binding, is the use of House Rules - a set of guidelines of behaviour that all agree to adhere to for everyone's benefit. This might apply to where smoking is allowed in breaks, and not using personal email accounts while at work. There's an expectation of honesty and trust, decency and consideration. 

Blasphemy

In England and Wales 'blasphemy' and 'blasphemous libel' laws were abolished in 2008, but still retained in Ireland and Scotland. I'm sorry to discover a poet I admire for his Monostichs, James Kirkup, wrote a poem I'd not heard of that graphically sexualized the character of Jesus Christ, which brought the publisher of Gay News Magazine to trial in 1977 on a charge of blasphemy. It was the last successful prosecution of such in the UK. 

1977: Gay paper guilty of blasphemy

The Gay News and its editor Denis Lemon have been found guilty of blasphemous libel in the first case of its kind for more than 50 years.

The case was brought as a private prosecution by the secretary of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, Mary Whitehouse.

She objected to a poem and illustration published in the fortnightly paper last year about a homosexual centurion's love for Christ at the Crucifixion.

Campaigner Mary Whitehouse objected to a poem called 'The love that dare not speak its name'

[From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_2499000/2499721.stm]

Representation

OK, but what does that mean exactly? Elucidate. Enlarge on that.

Or, to put it another way:

After the initial snort of laughter, if one was to actually apply the test...