Legal issues in the media industryBy Adam Ellix

Legal & Contractual

Employment legislation

Employment legislation is the laws that govern both the Employer and the Employee. This protects them unhealthy and unsafe working conditions allowing them to work freely without risking their lives in the process of filming.

Health and Safety

As an Employee you should be able to work freely and comfortably without there being any risks to your well being. Health & Safety is a major aspect of any project that you will be hired on as it helps to maintain stability and ensure that Employees still work on the project and only focus on making it the best it can be will not worrying that they are going to be seriously injured while working on the project.

Equal opportunities

Equal opportunities are what everybody should have when in a working environment this covers all of your Human rights which you have anyway but need to be covered in your contract because no Employer should break these rules. They should not be prejudice if you are a Man or a Woman or a different race. You should have equal responsibilities and tasks set that don’t let any one member of the crew feel left out and unwanted.

Employers liability

The Employer has to have insurance in place as they are contracting people to the jobs for you and if they are trying to get a risky shot and become injured then they will require compensation and it wont leave you open to a court case. This is what an Employer must make sure that they put in place before they hire crew members for the shooting of the project that they are trying to make. The insurance covers small injuries to major ones so that they can cover any accident and that they don’t loose their jobs because of it.

Employee rights

In the industry you may meet Employers who don’t respect your rights but by law you have rights which you should make yourself familiar with before starting to work for anyone as that way you can fight for your rights. Your rights include Wages, Amount of work, Sickness and time of, the right to get training, Dismissals and more. These rules are in place so that you as an employee are safely and comfortably able to work in your role on any future project.

Belonging to a trade union

An Employee is able to join a trade union which entitles them to not be made redundant, to not loose their job, you cant be refused a job or harassed because they are trade union members. Employers are

Intellectual property or IP

IP is an acronym which stands for intellectual property which is used to describe peoples own media creations. This can vary between songs, screenplays, characters, concept art or any other form of idea that you may have in your head that you have thought up.

You have the rights to it if you thought it up but you need to copy right it first. You do this by writing it down and recording it in someway like writing and putting it in the post and sending it to yourself as it will be stamped with the day and it is proof that you created it.

Copyright

Copyright is what determines the ownership of an idea or product.

Copyright is available to the creator and companies . Which means that if come up with an idea that is not related to your paid employment (or as one of your job roles) then you will own the copyright. If you are employed for a creative job then any ideas will copyrighted to the company.

Trademarks

Trademarks are what a company gets after they have copyrighted an IP. When they have the rights to it they can then use it as a means to gain popularity and recognition by having an idea trademarked.

Confidentiality contracts

Exclusivity contracts

Laws & Legislation

Ethical

Codes of practise

Producers policies and procedures

Representation