task 3 media unit 8

1. Unit 8 task 3
- Nikon Ahamed (BBFC - the Watershed - the
defamation act 2013
Ben, Nikon design and patents act 1988)
- Benjamin Goldstone (Industry codes of practice -
Ofcom - the Copyright)

2. Nikon Ahamed
BBFC - the Watershed - the defamation act 2013

3. BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental and non-profit organization,
founded by the film industry in 1912 and it is responsible for classifying, rating and censoring media
products such as films, videos, DVDs (and any other digital media product that gets released in the public)
and all this since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984 to the BBFC. If a product does not suit a
certain age range or goes beyond BBFC’s standards and regulations, the organization would tell the
owners of the product to not to release it, change it (such as by cutting scenes that are not appropriate) or
higher the minimum age at which it should be seen. When the BBFC finds problems in a product during
the analysis it releases a summary of all problems about the content under the name of BBFCinsight
which gives a description of the issues found in a digital product and at the same time outlines what
certificate was given to the respected product and what sort of audience they believe the work is suitable
for.

4. BBFC
BBFC’ s fees are used only to cover up its costs and expenses and the fees are being paid by the
companies who produce the digital content and want their products to be rated as they have to do so
before it gets released in the public.
Here is the link for the file of classification guidelines that the BBFC refers to when rating digital content.:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202014_6.p
df
As of late the BBFC started rating online music videos too as the use of the Male Gaze theory was making
an impactful change in the younger society, this is still to improve children protection online and consumer
awareness of the content being consumed, also Vevo and Youtube are contributing and working in
partnership with the BBFC as they are making a stable scheme of ratings for music videos by artists
signed to Sony Music UK, Universal Music UK and Warner Music UK.

5. BBFC
These are the issues the BBFC considers when classifying music video:
- drug misuse
- dangerous behaviour presented as safe
- bad language
- sexual behaviour and nudity
- threatening behaviour and violence

6. BBFC
An example of a “U” rated film would be the Toy Story saga which should be
suitable for audiences aged 4 years and over as U films should be set within a
positive framework and should not offer or refer to any violence, threat or horror
themes.
An example of a 18+ movie instead is Scary Movie and it’s series of films which
are considered by the BBFCinsight as films with frequent strong sex references

7. The watershed
The watershed is about protecting children and younger people from potential harmful content that may be
broadcasted in wrong times as even with the age ratings being put at the beginning of a digital product,
children may still be able to see them if programmes are being shown in wrong times. So based on
Ofcom, there are strict rules about what can be displayed before 21:00 as the “watershed” is the period of
time when children should be sleeping and therefore content rated for an older audience can be
broadcasted, but only until 5:30. Content rated for an older audience may include many inappropriate
scenes for children which can be about sexual, violence, distressing imagery and swearing in any kind of
shape or form and since 2003 Ofcom has been taking actions for broadcasters who scheduled unsuitable
content before or after the watershed and keeps on looking at programmes scheduling even nowadays for
a better environment for young people.

8. The watershed
For premium or pay-per-view services and channels in UK the watershed rule still applies in the same
way, from 21:00 until 5:30, sometimes allowing premium programmes to broadcast over 18 content until
6:00 as the timing are a bit more flexible. Programmes that are rated 15 cannot be shown outside this
period, however, some 12-rated shows and other can be shown before 21:00, such as The Simpsons,
Malcolm in the Middle, Doctor Who, Atlantis and Futurama. On protected channels such as Sky Movies
there is no watershed rule as in order to view adult content before 21:00 a PIN will be required to put
which ideally the parents/guardians only should know.
Sometimes, content 12+ has some inappropriate scenes for even younger people, but they still can be
broadcasted before the watershed meaning that for further health and safety ethic decisions as children
may be watching, the companies need to change the content of their product, this means that these
programmes which may contain unsuitable content for people under 12 have to go through changes and
editing where some bits of scenes might be taken away to let the younger audience watch it, even
censoring may be included to hide inappropriate material.

9. The watershed
An example of a film that is 12+ and has been shown outside the watershed time
is Jurassic Park which on Friday, June 30, 2017 has been broadcasted on AMC
channels 54 and 105, this film although does not contain particular sex scenes
may have a lot of violence (due to the nature of the film being based on dinosaurs)
and attacks, or use of guns which can still affect young people and due to this the
producers should be cutting out pieces to give the consumers the safest product
possible as at that time everyone age range could be potentially watching.
Another more general example would be about the film King Kong which includes
a scene where there may be some sexual content (when Kong rips Ann’ s
dressing as he was holding her) which gets cut out when the film is broadcasted
outside the watershed period as well as the fighting scene against the T-Rex
where at the end of the fight, Kong grabs the T-Rex from its mouth and opens it till
it breaks, this particular scene

10. The Defamation Act 2013
The defamation act 2013 is an act present in the parliament of UK which outlines the rights of freedom of
expression and the protection of reputation of others. This act prevents your reputation to be damaged
from two types of defamation, one is libel and the other one is slander. Libel is public defamation which is
when someone takes the initiative to publish any type of content (on newspapers, TV and radio, books
and on the internet in general too) about someone else or even about a company or group of people for
the purpose of ruining their reputation or because there is something inside the specific group, individual
and company that is not ethical or breaks some laws/rules of the country; whereas, slander defamation
has less of an effect and impact as it involves spoken defamation which has less importance as there is
no clear evidence of someone doing slander defamation unless someone is recording what is being said,
but this automatically becomes libel as recordings are digital and can be published.

11. The Defamation Act 2013
An example of libel defamation would be the case of the Comedian Frankie Boyle who won £54,650 in
damages as it has been noticed by a High Court jury that the Daily Mirror had libelled him by describing
him as "racist". Boyle, said, the newspaper had defamed him with an article published on 19 July 2011,
but at the end the jurors were in favour of Boyle as he was able to prove his controversial humor he puts
in his jokes meaning he won over £50.000 from the “Daily Mirror” in his defense of reputation .
Here is the article where I found about Frankie Boyle:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20033097

12. Ben G

13. design and patents act 1988 Nikon
The design and patents act 1988 is currently a law in the UK which enables the protection of copyright of
creator’s work which can be of any type from literary to digital content where the owner of the product can
claim it’s products as of his property which therefore means that that product can not be copied in any kind
of shape or form by another person.
An example of a copyright case would be what happened in 2009 between Gucci and Guess where Gucci
sued Guess for infringing on five Gucci trademarks, including the use of similar logos. Guess used many
of Gucci’s distinctive marks, including a green and red stripe used on handbags, the repeating, inverted
GG pattern, and the company’s use of brown and beige colours, mostly used alongside with diamond
shape patterns. At the end Gucci came out on top getting a $4.7m for the “damages” even though the
predicted amount was much higher ($224m)

14. (Industry codes of practice - Ofcom - the Copyright)
Ben Goldstone

15. design and patents act 1988 Ben G
It gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways in which
their material may be used. The things you can’t do When you buy software, for example, copyright law
forbids you from giving a copy to a friend, making a copy and then selling it, using the software on a network
and renting the software without the permission of the copyright holder. If someone uses someone else's
product or idea they would usually get the same mark as the person that originally came up with the idea but
the other person would be taking credit for it. If a video is shown on youtube and it’s the same as a different
one but someone else originally came up with the idea for the film. So if someone else uses the same content
they wouldn't be credited for it they would mention in the video to look in the description who originally
came up with the idea. It would show the person who originally made it. If the company have created a
product of came up with an idea that other companies hear about the company decide whether to allow other
companies to use it if they don't let them but companies still do anyway they can get sued. Which wouldn't be
a good place to be. They want to reward people who have actually done the work themselves. Design and
patents act was created to make money and to protect people because copyright isn't that hard to do so
someone needs to stop it. An agreement between the company that developed the software and the user must
be agreed before the software is installed. This is called the license agreement and covers copyright. Certain
pieces of software require a unique licence key to be entered before the installation will continue.

16. Copyright
Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive
rights for its use and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time. Copyright gives the creators of some
types of media rights to control how they’re used and distributed, music, books, video and software can all be
covered by copyright law. Copyright is a very dangerous thing to do because it can lead to the company being
sued or even losing the whole company which would be a terrible mistake. Copyright protects the physical
expressions of ideas. If a photograph, a web page, film, music or even a piece of writing is protected by
copyright. Copyright is a property right and it can easily be sold or transferred to other places.. Copyright is
when you take someone's ideas or even use the exact thing, for example a film can be copied because they
could use the same name which would be copyright unless they ask them if they are okay with it but the
audience would think its strange and this usually never happens. If they use the same name but they don't tell
the first company that came up with it they can get sewed and lose lots of money. Which wouldn’t be ideal.
Copyright is the law that gives you ownership over the thing you have created either a photograph, film,
novel, song etc. if you have wrote a book or a novel it’s your decision if you want it to be spread around or if a
specific person can use it.

17. Copyright example star wars vs battlestar galactica
copyright case
The main use of copyright would be to make copies, license, use, or otherwise exploit an original work of art,
or over the creation of an original design. People think that copyright is such an easy thing to accomplish but
it’s not it takes skill to hide your identification. So you don't get caught. Copyright gives the creators of some
types of media rights to control how they're used and distributed. Music, books, video and software can all be
covered by copyright law. An example of a famous film doing copy right was star wars vs battlestar galactica
In 1978 Twentieth Century Fox sued Universal Studios, alleging that Battlestar Galactica infringed on
copyright created by Star Wars. The issue was whether or not Battlestar’s characters, lines and technology
were copied from Star Wars. This case was a really big case for universal studios. another example is that the
original script drafts of Galactica had a character named Skyler, not too far away from Skywalker in Star Wars.
Another example the original title for Battlestar Galactica was Star Worlds.

18. Ofcom
Ofcom are the communication regulators, they relegate tv radio, mobile phones and postal services. They
make sure the people that live in the uk get the best communication services from the provider and by doing
this they protect them from getting scammed or wasting their money. The creation of ofcom was in 2001
during the queen's speech to the UK. the ofcom company would take over so many company during a
competition. Ofcom became huge in 2003 because as it took so many companies down and made there's the
best. It's a very well known company as this is something we all look into because they communicate about tv,
lots of people these days watch tv so it's extremely popular.
Ofcom was established to gain control over the main company but they didn't do it in an upsetting way they
still wanted to try and make it fair for everyone. So the government made sure there was no illegal
broadcasting or radio sources in the uk and they made sure to keep the public safe but they still wanted to try
and make it entertaining for people while still receiving their favourite series or radio channel.
Ofcom is run in different groups but the 3 main main groups are the ofcom boards, executive committee and
the content board. Each group have a big responsibility to run the company and to make sure everything is in
place. The executive committee team oversees the management of how it's organised. The content board
make sure that appropriate things get shown in the uk and the standard quality is allowed to be shown. The
content board just want to make sure that everything that is shown in the uk is alright to be shown in the UK.

19. Industry codes of practice
A code of practice is a set of professional standards or written guidelines for members of a particular
profession or written guidelines issued by an official body or a professional association to its members to help
them comply with its ethical standards. A Code of Practice is also a practical guide to achieve the standards of
health and safety. For the film industry they must keep there guidelines to help them get through to the next
stage. An industry code of practice is a set of enforceable rules and measures put in place to regulate industry
conduct, its workers and their relationship with consumers. A code of practice is a set of rules which show
responsibility and rights of people it shows people what the right thing to do is. It's to promote the interest of
service users and carers, to communicate appropriately and effectively, to make sure work is done within the
limit of their knowledge, keep records of their work and be honest and trustworthy and lastly it's to make
sure that they know what to do when things go wrong. The purpose of an industry code is to ensure industry
compliance with an agreed upon set of objectives that benefit workers, employers and consumers. ofcom is
committed to a thriving telecoms sector in which companies can compete fairly, and businesses and
customers benefit from the choice of a broad range of services.

20. Bibliography
http://www.bbc.co.uk/copyrightaware/what-is
https://lawpath.com.au/blog/what-is-an-industry-code-of-practice
https://www.business.gov.au/info/run/fair-trading/codes-of-practice
https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=iEZnWamAIo_HXoyvlBg#=ofcom
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/design/textiles/texsystemspracticesrev
1.shtml