LO2 - Legal and Ethical Issues

LAW
1. Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964
This law makes is an offence to publish, whether for gain or not, any content whose effect will tend to 'deprave and corrupt' those likely to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.

In order to avoid breaking the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964, I will not publish any obscene material or extreme viewpoints which may deprave or corrupt the audience.

2. The Defamation Act 2013
This act states that the publisher has broken the law when it publishes content in which:
- A statement is defamatory when its publication has caused or is likley to cause serious harm to the reputation of the claimant.
- For the purposes of this section, harm to the reputation of a body that trades for profit when it has caused or is likely to cause the body serious financial loss.

I will avoid creating content which will contravene the act by not publishing anything that is untrue or that could damage the reputation of a person, company or object.

3. Copyright Law 
At its heart copyright law covers the publication of content(written or image) without the permission of the author/copyright holder.
- Under the 1995 Regulations the period of author's copyright was extended, to the lifetime of the author and 70 years thereafter.
- The publisher's (seperate) copyright, in the typographical arrangement of a printed work, lasts for 25 years from the end of the year in which publication occured. This protects a publisher's copyright in all printed works: inlcuding books, magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals.

I will avoid breaking the copyright law simply by making sure that all the content of my magazine is my own, and any photographs or media that I do use are from royalty free areas in which I have express permission to publish inside my magazine.

4. Negligent Publication
The author and/or the publisher under certain circumstances, either individually or jointly, could be found liable for 'incitement' or 'neglient publication' if a reader of their publication is seriously injured, dies or suffers from damage to their personal property after acting upon or using the content contained in the publication. (Food & DiY Magazines Especially)

 I will not create negligent publication in my magazine by making sure that my instructions within the recipes will not cause harm to anyone.

ETHICAL
-Ethical issues are those not covered by law, for example if a fashion magazine uses real furs in a shoot, some may say that this is unethical.

-Use of models and their treatment is the likely most common ethical issue to arise from magazine publication.

-Also content can cause ethical issues as well e.g. long term effects of gaming, body shaming, fad diets, fitness regimes etc.

I will avoid raising unethical issues in my magazine as they will cause offense/problems to some members of the audience.