Ethical and Legal Constraints of

the Media Sector

Video Recording Act
When video recorders were introduced in 1978 there was no legislation saying
what could be released to who. This meant there was no control over what
people could release and access. To control this parliament passed the Video
Recording Act in 1984. This meant that all videos released must be rated and it
would become illegal to supply a person with a video rated higher than their age.
As so many videos had already been released before the act was introduced,
there was a deadline in which all these videos had to be rated by. By the 1 st of
September 1988 all these previous videos needed to be rated.

Copyright Law
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act was introduced in 1988. This act protects
literary, dramatic works, music, art, typographical arrangement of published
editions, sound recording, and film from being copied, stolen, adapted or shown
in public without the permission of the copyright holder. Whenever, someone
creates a work their work is automatically copyrighted, as long as the work is
original and has taken some degree of skill or labour. The copyright for films is 70
years from the end of the calendar year that the creator dies. However, if the
creator is unknown or the film has been made available to the public then the
copyright ends 70 years after creation or 70 years after its been made available
to the public. Without permission from the copyright holder you are permitted to
use the work for private study, educational purposes, news reporting and to
parody. If the copyright is infringed then you are asked to remove the work,
however, if you fail to do this then you could be fined or receive a jail sentence.
An example of copyright infringement occurred in 2009 when Luxo sued Pixar
and Walt Disney for the lamp Pixar used. Luxo ignored its use until 2009 when
Pixar began to sell replicas of the lamp with a special edition of UP without
permission. A few months later the lawsuit was settled.

Films Act
The Cinematograph Films Act was introduced in 1927 and came into force on the
1st April 1928. The act was designed to stimulate the declining of the British film
industry. The supporters of the act believed that a vertically integrated film
industry would emerge where production, distribution and exhibition were all
controlled by the same company. The aim was to counter Hollywoods dominance
of the industry and encourage vertical integration among the British film
industry. The plan was that it would increase economic success and lead the
industry to be self-sustaining.

Importance of Ethical Issues

Certain language can only be used in certain age rated films. The BBFC states
that a U rated film can use infrequent mild bad language; a PG can contain mild

bad language; a 12 can use moderate language and infrequent use of strong
language; a 15 can use strong language frequently while the strongest language
may be acceptable depending on context and an 18 has no language constraints.
This is to make sure that children can only hear language, in film, that is deemed
appropriate.
The BBFC employs an equal opportunities policy. This means that they promote
equal opportunities regardless of age, race, religion or disability. This means that
no one should be placed at a disadvantage due to any of these things.
Many companies encourage diversity by trying to employ people from different
backgrounds to be in films as well as to work for the company. For example, the
BFI Diversity Standards outline their focus on improving the diversity in feature
film productions and production companies.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/about-bfi/policy-strategy/diversity

Representation of
Gender
The amount of men and women
is unequal in the film industry.
Working in the film industry
there is one woman for every
five men. However, it is
increasing. For example, in 1998
13% of writers were female,
compared to 15% in 2012.
Female actors do also earn
considerably less than male
actors. For example in 2013
Angelina Jolie was the highest
paid actress at $33 million,
while the highest paid actor was
Robert Downey Jr. who earned
$75 million. The Geena Davis
Institute investigated the
amount of distinct speaking
roles in 122 family films
released between 2006 and
2009. Out og these 122 films
only 29.2% of these roles were
female.

The characters in Disney films

are often female, for example
the Disney princesses. However,
they are represented as being
weak and needing a man to
save them, as they are shown

as the damsel in distress. The princes in Disney films though are strong and
heroic.
https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/#!prettyPhoto

Representation of Religious Beliefs

Religious beliefs need to be represented in a fair and accurate as to not cause
offence. If a film was claiming that a particular religion was bad then it could
cause offence to people belonging to that religion. However, it could also
brainwash people watching to believe the ideas that the film makers are
portraying are true, which could religious hatred between different religions. For
example, in Germany under Hitlers ruling, films were commissioned and made
showing Jews in a negative light, making it easier for the Nazis to brainwash the
public as their messages were subtly added into films that were shown in
cinemas. Films were screened by the Nazis and if they contained something that
didnt fit in with their ideals then it would not be shown.
Films can also be controversial as some people will get offended. For example,
Monty Pythons Life of Brian was the subject of much controversy as some
Christians protested outside cinemas in the UK and US on the grounds of
blasphemy and saying it was mocking the life of Jesus, even though it was just a
comedy film. It was even banned in some countries including Ireland and Norway.
http://www.popcrunch.com/10-movies-banned-because-of-religious-groups/?
img=138654

How Should Men and Women be Represented?

I think that men and women should be treated equally in the film industry. This
would mean they would earn the same money for doing the same job, unlike now
where men are paid for doing the same thing. Also men and women should
receive equal opportunities. I mentioned earlier that men and women are not
represented equally in the media and they should be.

Does your Chosen Industry Represent People Fairly?

The film industry does not represent people equally. However, it is slowly
beginning to break the stereotypes. For example there was a 4% increase in
successful female directors and filmmakers in Hollywood in 2012. The Bechdel
Test shows that mean and women are not treated fairly in the film industry. The
test says that two named female characters in a film are seen talking to each
other int the film about something other than men. On the Bechdel Test Movie
List there are 6230 films, however, only 57.6% of these pass the test. This shows
that the film industry does not represent men and women fairly. Ethnic minorities
are not represented fairly in the film industry either as most successful films do
not have ethnic minorities as the main part of the film.