Research Task 5
L4 Creative Enterprise
Unit 1: The Creative Entrepreneur
Research Tasks
Task 5: Legislation and the creative industries
This is potentially a huge area, so let's start with some
specifics:
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property, or IP as it is commonly referred to,
consists of all the pieces of your business that you or your employees have
thought of. It’s the things that differentiate you from the competition that
you came up with using your intellect – your brain. IP is the original concepts
and ideas conceived of and developed by employees, or workers and advisors
under contract to do so, that become corporate assets. Examples of IP include
logos, music, inventions and slogans. All successful businesses have their own
individual IP which is the core genius that helps the business achieve their
ambitions.
For example, McDonald’s golden arches, the catchy whistle
and the end of their ads and the slogan “I’m lovin’ it” are all examples of
intellectual property, besides their products too such as the Big Mac.
Legislation such as patents and copyright are tightly enforced particularly
within the creative industries and breaking the code of conduct within this
area can break a business with immediate effect. Without additional protection
such as trademarks too, a competitor can easily steal our own intellectual
ideas and promote it as there's, reaping the benefits and profits of something
you’ve come up with. Obviously, this is deemed unfair and in recent years,
legislation has become much stricter on this to create a much stricter and
level playing competition. A key problem that was faced by SME’s was an already
huge market leader stealing niche IP from the smaller firms and being able to
get away with it since they had such a large monopolisation to avoid losing
their market lead. Copyright is now also much more accessible and affordable to
improve this too.
Copyright is the most universal use of protecting your
intellectual property. Copyright has a huge impact on the creative industries
as the entire industry relies on originality and genuine individual work,
rather than counterfeit and copied work. Copyright has a wide definition, as it
can protect just about anything such as designs, music and logos. Copyright has
frequent legislation updates within Parliament since new technologies make it
even easier to abuse copyright material.
For example, there are classic cases of productions and
advertising who have used copyright protected content, who have later been sued
for significant amounts of money as they were not granted to use their music,
script and other creative pieces. Ensuring your material is fully protected via
copyright, you will be fully in safe hands and eligible to take action if
necessary with full legal support. Copyright protected material can be used
provided access is granted by the creator.
Trademarks
Trademarks are a particularly specific use of copyright
protection which solely relates to the recognisable features of a brand. Rather
than scripts, music and design, trademarks relate to the corporate brand
identifiers which are instantly associated with the brand.
For example, Coca-Cola will have a strong trademark on their
glossy red logo, their script font and the shape of the bottle, In addition,
Coca-Cola will have a trademark on their ‘taste the feeling’ slogan and the
‘Santa’ character who promotes their products during the festive time of year.
All of these aspects are instantly recognised and associated with Coca-Cola,
therefore trademarks which are represented with the ‘R’ logo and within small
print, protect any competitors or rivals from using this material. However,
many challenges large brands such as Coke face are knock-off brands in stores
such as Aldi who use very similar design and names as Coke, but dodge the
trademark bullet since technically, the two products side by side have strong
enough differences.
A talent release form is a more personal and specific method
of protecting your creative work, particularly within filming, photography and
audio. The ‘talent’ simply relates to the personnel who is being used as the focal
point of the production. The talent release form is essential in order for the
talent to consent to their voice, video and photos of them being used for
corporate use to be shown. This ensures the talent cannot be sued/sue as they
claim it as their own work.
For example, a photography producer uses a model to promote
the new season at Gucci. It is the producer’s responsibility to organise the
talent release form to be signed and approved by the talent, to ensure consent
for the product to be used and to avoid being sued for abusing copyright
protection. It is a simple document, typically one page which will consist of
all the terms and conditions of the release and both the producers and talent’s
signatures for full authority and clarity of the production.
What are location releases?
Similarly to the talent release, the location release is a
particularly important document that must be signed and approved by both the
producer and landlord before the production can even begin. Simply, the
location release confirms approval by the landlord for the production to take
place within their land/building/studio. This compulsory document must be
completed before work can begin, this is required for any filming or
photography on site.
For example, you want to do a full professional photography
session in a cafe, you would have to require the cafe manager/franchise manager
to confirm approval of the production beforehand. If this is not approved via
the release form, the owner is able to sue the production company for using
their premises without permission. For another example, you want to film a car
chase scene on a landlord’s private land, the document will likely explain how
damages will be paid for too by the producer if necessary. A location release
form is not necessary for public land such as a public beach, park or road,
however public law will apply if broken.
What are the rules about a. filming and b. performing in
public in the UK?
Swiftly following the previous question, public production
still has its rules to follow in relation to everyday law. Using the previous
examples and as mentioned, location release forms are not required for filming
on public land. However, unlike on private land in a professional and approved
release, the law still fully applies. For filming using the previous examples,
you would not be able to speed 100mph in a car chase on public roads, you are
not allowed to film in a public park where there may be children or publicly
exposing your body. All of the above being filmed in public would have the
talent and producers in serious trouble with the law facing fines and even jail
time. This is simple logic and morale to not do this. Recently, there have also
been further regulations in performing publicly too. This particularly relates
to unincorporated freelance buskers and performers who perform in busy towns
and city centres. We’ve all seen acts live or on tele in Covent Garden, the
Underground and even in local town centres where you used to simply turn up and
perform. Now, you need full licensing in order to tax your cash in hand income.
In addition, recent Covid-19 restrictions have disabled live public
performances in order to prevent gatherings in public which has wiped out many
independent creator’s careers.
How might child labour laws impact the creative
industries?
Child labour laws within the creative industries is an
absolute essential to ensure the safety and welfare of the child is priority.
General license terms include Children 9 years of age and over can only work
for 9 hours between 7.00am and 7.00pm. Time spent acting or performing are
limited to 1 hour at a time (4 hours in total). This shoot day will consist of
2 one-hour breaks and a 15-minute rests in the gaps in between acting and the one-hour
breaks. If you over run, then there is a 30-minute window which must be struck
off the next allotted shooting time which is according to the licence. Children
Under 5 years old can only work for 5 hours between 9.30am and 4.30pm Again any
time spent doing actions or performing are limited to 30 minutes (2 hours in
total with breaks in-between and at the guardian’s request if needed. These
times are strict and any over running must be factored into another production
day. In addition, this includes the safety of the child as well as the labour
hours such as:
-
The education of the child is not affected.
-
The child does not have any existing medical
conditions that a production could worsen or affect.
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The conditions of the licence will be observed.
Provided all of the above are fully obtained, recorded and
authorised, the child and guardian who needs to be with them at all times
should be happy to continue. This may slow down the availability for filming
throughout the week, yet this is not comparable for the safety and welfare of
the talent and guardian.
What is public liability insurance?
Public liability insurance covers compensation payments and
legal fees if your business is found responsible for injury or property damage
to a member of the public. This could be a client, customer, supplier or
passer-by. The protection public liability insurance offers is simple but
essential. At the most basic level it protects your business from legal costs
and compensation payments arising from injury to members of the public or
damage to their property that’s caused by your business. Public liability
insurance could cover, for example, the cost of replacing a laptop damaged by a
coffee spill, right up to a major mishap that put a third party in hospital.
Say you’re a self-employed creative props assistant in a scene and someone
slips and breaks a bone because you forgot to put out a wet floor sign. In this
instance your public liability insurance would cover the bill if they demanded
compensation from your business. Public liability insurance can cover
everything from the minor workplace incidents to the expensive accidents that
could cripple your business.
What is GDPR
The GDPR is Europe's new framework for data protection laws – it replaces the previous 1995 data protection directive. Previous UK law was based upon this directive. The EU's GDPR website says the legislation is designed to "harmonise" data privacy laws across Europe as well as give greater protection and rights to individuals. Within the GDPR there are large changes for the public as well as businesses and bodies that handle personal information. The creative industries should apply their business in relation to the General Data Protection Regulation accordingly, as it is a much more modern and relevant regulation to ensure their customers and staff are safe whilst operating business online for example. Similarly to the Data Protection Act in 1998, however since the regulation was passed in 2016 it takes into account more modern values with regards to hackers and online scams being a much more significant issue now in comparison to over 20 years ago when online technology was still developing.
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