I will be comprehensively explaining ethical and legal constraints within the media sector with reference to elucidated examples.
Indirect racial discrimination
Indirect Racial discrimination may fall into one of two categories depending on the racial grounds of discrimination. The first is on grounds of colour or nationality, under the original definition in the Race Relations Act. The second category is direct racial discrimination this occurs when you are able to show that you have been treated less favourably on racial grounds than others in similar circumstances. Mr Souster, a presenter for BBC Scotland’s Rugby Special, complained that he had lost his job because he was English and the BBC sought after someone of a Scottish race.
Copyright
Copyright is part of intellectual property law. Originators of material such as books, films, songs, photographs etc. The creator has an automatic ownership. You cannot copyright an idea; you can only copyright something if it’s been published, the cost of your own work depends on you the copyright holder as you created the work so you decide the value of your work. The owner must give permission to anyone before they copy something. The computer misuse act is if you gain access to a computer without authorisation and steal the data by hacking files, or if you copy a program e.g. Photoshop and put it on program like Nero or Limewire, you can be prosecuted with a heavy fine or 5 years of imprisonment. As a designer you are not permitted to download programs of the internet, there are copyright laws on these programs. Copyrights last for 70 years after the creators death and 50 years for a performer.
Trademark
A trademark is a sign used by an individual or organisation to identify their product or service has been produced by a unique source and to distinguish its products or services.
Accessibility
Disabilities can affect the way somebody interprets a product for instance if you have hearing difficulties or visual impairments you may not experience a product the same way as someone would do if he hadn’t these disabilities. So it is up to the company to design a product that can be accessible as much as possible. In general visually impaired consumers would need a bigger and bolder font this site would be deemed accessible: http://www.lighthouse.org/?gclid=CPvDyb6O46YCFQ4f4Qod2E9l0Q
This site on the other hand wouldn't: http://www.gucci.com/uk/home
The Data Protection Act
The data protection act is principally the right for a user’s information to be kept secret and not to be publicised for example, if you have an account on Amazon it is their responsibility that your personal information is to be kept undisclosed. It also means that your information must be secure and shouldn’t be held for longer than necessary. So if you cancel your account/subscription or contract it is their duty to have your information erased from their database
