The legal and ethical considerations relevant to the interactive media industry.

In this article we talk about legal and ethical considerations relevant to working in the interactive media industry. We will cover: intellectual property rights, permissions, libel and issues of sensitivity to other social groups, relevant acts of parliament, relevant employment law, and relationship with clients, representation and effects debates.
When working in interactive media a designer is often met with legal constraints limiting what is possible with a product or material that wasn’t made by them. As someone working in the media industry it is important they check for intellectual property or (IP) rights, so what is intellectual property? IP lets people own the work they created and put in place by parliament. There is four types of IP that when put together can give complete protection.
1. Patents, patents protect the working parts of your product and the processes used to make its various components and stop other people taking that idea or process and using it on their own products because when or if they do they face penalties.
2. Trade marks, a registered trade mark protect the product and symbol.
3. Designs, A registered design protect the shape and visual appeal of a product and its various components.
4. Copyright, the Copyright act protects the product’s owner manual and even images of the product and the song used in its television advertisement.

This insures the product is not copied by people needing permission and unauthorized to do so without facing penalties. To obtain permission to use a work protected by intellectual property, the designer finds the copyright owner of the material he or she intend to use, contact the owner, and request the right to use the work in the territory and format intended, and in some cases pay the owner a fee.
When a contract is written up between the Copyright owner and the person with desired interest in the copyrighted content, who is responsible for the new or reused content is often passed on to the new owner. This protects the original Copyright owner from being libel for any untruths or contempt to others published, written or broadcast by the new owner.
This is similar to the relationship with clients and the ethical and sensitive issues it brings, for example you have been given a brief to design a poster promoting a new taxi hire company but they ask for content that taints all the other local taxi companies and competition, which is libel and is not in good morals? The ethics your company or yourself presents is important, maybe the contract states the client takes all responsibility, but this still taints your business and loses you custom with all those other taxi companies. So should you say no? And state the ethics of your company or try convince the client to employee some moral respect to the competition? Either way it is important you represent your company in its best light within the community and the media industry, including the “Effects” it have on the public through media regulation, classification and censorship, as it has been said that the media has a power to influence the masses and “effect” them if wanted in a negative way, and there is a need to protect people easily influenced from material that may cause them harm in one way or another.
Good ethics should also be diploid with in the work place and work force for example Discrimination at work, the law protects you and your employees from discrimination at work including dismissal, employment terms and conditions, pay and benefits, promotion and transfer opportunities, training, recruitment and redundancy. People with a disability are also entitled to the same rights, plus a fair chance in an application (eg providing forms in Braille, audio formats) also aptitude tests (eg giving extra time to complete the tests) and interview arrangements (eg wheelchair access, communicator support) and making sure the workplace has the right facilities and equipment for disabled workers or someone offered a job. However there are some cases of discrimination allowed if they are for an organisation that has certain rules for example employing only women in a health centre for Muslim women or a Catholic school restricting applications for teachers to be Catholics only.
As an employer with in the industry it is also important to keep up to date with employment law with in all aspects of their company for example an interactive application form made by a company may ask for information that has now been made against the law for a company to ask for without government standard security systems in place to protect the information from reaching a third party. It is also important for an employee of a company to think about employment law within the their industry,
For example, what you can and cannot talk about with who and where, e.g. often business owners will have a disclaimer and terms and conditions within your employment contract stating your limits on distributing information about the company or clients of the company, this is also often attached as a footer to the company emails, denying you permission from giving information to third parties, and as a person working in the media industry it is important you know that employment contracts often state that any material you make or used in the work place or on company equipment will belong to the company.

We spoke about how people working in this industry have a lot to consider with legal and ethical values relevant to working in interactive media and working with others in the industry. It is easy to see how important it is for people who work in the media industry to take caution and responsibility for actions taken. How the repercussions affect others around them with in the workplace, the industry, public and community can be anything from small to a global affair.