Legal / Ethical Issues

 Legal / Ethical Issues Report

Copyright is the ownership and the legal rights to copy and display a piece of creative work publicly. It also gives the owner the right to reproduce and gives exclusive rights to the producer to control the work. Copyright prevents distributing or copying the work either for free or for money. It also prevents anyone for renting copies of the work and showing it publicly without giving credit, editing it and making different versions and putting the work online. ‘Work made for hire’ is a term used to describe a photographer that is hired to take photos, for example a photojournalist hired by a newspaper or magazine however not for social events like weddings, birthdays and small personal events. 

A ‘work made fore hire’ contract will include specifics like a timeline fo the project, a detailed work schedule, project milestones and terms of payment. A ‘work for hire’ agreement may also ensure that the contractor doesn’t retain any rights over the work created. Flat fee licenses will give you a one off payment for a specific use of your work and in some cases are more simple however if the product is more successful in selling than hoped, he creator will loose out on income. A Royalty Payment is the amount that is contributed and payed by the third party to the owner or for the use of the product. An Advance is funding made on a future commitment or a future payment. There are many different types of advances and each cater to the specific scenario. 

Guaranteed minimum is the amount paid to to the producer by the looks of how it will perform. The minimum guarantee is the least amount that is assured to the producer, if an agreement is made, the producer will get a portion of the money the distributor makes longer down the line. Licensing is a term used to show permission. Its giving someone permission in a specific way for a specific purpose for a specific time frame. 

The rules of work that is not copyrighted in the public domain is that anyone may use the work without permission. Nobody owns images off of the internet, meaning you can use images off of google, Safari and other domains and not face any consequences. Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation that is a public copyright licence where the owner of an image can allow It for public use without charging. 

Fair Dealing is a term used to establish wether a use of copyright material is lawful or wether it infringes copyright. You cannot take an image of someone else’s work because anything containing original content is protected by copyright. To do anything with an image of someone else’s image, you would need permission. 

A Model Release is a form you would give a model to sign which would legally cover you as a photographer to release the photographs and use them in any way you want. It also covers you incase of injury or any accidents that happen on set. Three types of Model Releases are a Minor Release, Adult Release, Property Release. It is always necessary to use a model release form and you shouldn’t take any chances. Context is everything and having it in writing covers you for example if you’re working with a model and in the future things go sour, the model could sue and have images taken down and claim they did not give consent and havoc is caused. 

Here are two examples of model releases. 

A privacy breach happens when someone has information without permission or consent. A few examples of a privacy breach is a house being broken in to and USB devices stoles with private information on, another is theft of hard copy notes. Breaches to Privacy do not always involve physical theft it can also be hidden cameras, harassment, Fraudulent Entry and many more. ‘False light’ is a term used to describe false information. For example, someone could take a photo of our prime minister and write un true statements about him and post it all over social media, it would be classed as ‘False Light’. A few other examples of ‘False Light’ include, Distortion, Public Disclosure, Embellishment, Fictionalisation and more. 

It is important to have public liability insurance in case your business or company is taken to court by a client. It covers you in all legal defence costs plus any compensation and or settlement money you have to pay out. A few types of insurance are General Liability Insurance which covers any body harm or injury, Business Owner Insurance which covers any equipment damage that may occur and Indemnity Insurance protects against any claims of negligence or any concerns of failure to complete or perform. 

An image bank is a website where you can buy and download royalty-free photos. A few examples are AdobeStock, Shutterstock and Stocksnap.io.