Regulatory and Professional Bodies

British Video Association
Video entertainment is the single most valuable part of the UK's audiovisual sector, providing content to suit every taste, age and lifestyle. Video entertainment is distributed on physical and digital formats, from DVD, Blu-ray Discs and 3D Blu-ray Discs through to digital TV-based and web-based internet services, available to rent or to own portable devices and for home consumption.

Film Distributors Association
We represent a distribution stance in regular representations to and consultations with the UK Film Council, the government and other trade organisations in the film industry. We are also a passionate advocate of distributors' pivotal role in the well-being of the whole film economy.

Video Standards Council (VSC)
The Video Standards Council was established in 1989 has an non-profit making body which is set up to  develop and oversee a code of practice designed to promote high standards within the video industries.

Trading Standards Press
The Trading Standards Institute is the professional association which represents trading standards professionals in the UK and overseas.TSI performs an important and influencing role in engaging with, and making representations to, Government, UK and EU Parliamentary institutions, and key stakeholders in the local government, community, business and consumer sectors, and other regulatory agencies. TSI aims to sustain and improve consumer protection, health and wellbeing, together with the reinforcement of fair markets, facilitating business competitiveness and success.

Complaints Commission (PCC)

The PCC is an independent body which administers the system of self-regulation for the press. It does so primarily by dealing with complaints, framed within the terms of the Editors' Code of Practice, about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites, including editorial audio-visual material) and the conduct of journalists.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

The Advertising Standards Authority plays an essential role in today’s world. It informs, entertains and promotes healthy competition. Our aim at the ASA is to ensure that consumers do not just enjoy the ads they see, but they can trust them too.

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF)

Mobile entertainment is created as the convergence of both industries. Each of these worlds speaks a different language, and holds different assumptions about the nature of its work.

The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA)

is the national trade association representing the business and commercial interests of video and computer game developers in the UK and Europe. Its counterpart representing software publishers in the UK is ELSPA.

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.

Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA)

The Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) is the trade body

for UK commercial radio. It represents commercial radio to Government,

the Radio Authority, copyright societies and other organisations

concerned with radio.

The International Visual Communication Association (IVCA)

The International Visual Communications Association exists to represent its members to Government and other stakeholding bodies and to promote effective business and public service communications of the highest ethical and professional standards. 

Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C)

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards

British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA)

BIMA is dedicated to serving our membership in the UK and abroad. Locally, we are active in discussions with Government, leading industry players and other partner associations. Globally, we represent and champion the UK multimedia industry.

Regulatory Issues

Ownership -  is where people decide whether or not to let certain people own a certain amount of media conglomerates. In my opinion I think people can own what they want through how successful they are or let the public of the area decide who will be incharge. Only someone with a certain reputation is able to own media conglomerates.

Monopoly - A monopoly describes a situation where all (or most) sales in a market are undertaken by a single firm. A natural monopoly by contrast is a condition on the cost-technology of an industry whereby it is most efficient (involving the lowest long-run average cost) for production to be concentrated in a single form. In some cases, this gives the largest supplier in an industry, often the first supplier in a market, an overwhelming cost advantage over other actual and potential competitors. In my opinion monopoly is a good idea and I think they should only change the price if the item goes out of bussiness.

Access -The MAC sub-layer acts as an interface between the logical link control (LLC) sublayer and the network's physical layer. The MAC layer emulates a full-duplex logical communication channel in a multi-point network. This channel may provide unicast, multicast or broadcast communication service.

Consumers Choice - is a theory of microeconomics that relates preferences for consumption goods and services to consumption expenditures and ultimately to consumer demand curves. The link between personal preferences, consumption, and the demand curve is one of the most closely studied relations in economics. Consumer choice theory is a way of analyzing how consumers may achieve equilibrium between preferences and expenditures by maximizing utility as subject to consumer budget constraints.

Freedom of Information -  comprises laws that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. Also variously referred to as open records or (especially in the United States) sunshine laws, governments are also typically bound by a duty to publish and promote openness. In many countries there are constitutional guarantees for the right of access to information, but usually these are unused if specific support legislation does not exist. Other peoples views on freedom really do matter.

Censorship -  is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body. For example V for Vendatta insinuates a variety of censorships. Firstly, when using certain things that are historical and not letting other people see.

Taste and Decency -

Transmissions should not include anything which offends against good taste or decency or is likely to encourage or incite to crime or to lead to disorder or to be offensive to public feeling.

Licensees should take note of the guidance contained in Section 1 of the ITC Programme Code, in particular that relating to the use of bad language and bad taste in humour.

In accordance with the ITC’s Family Viewing Policy, normally no editorial material which is unsuitable for children should be transmitted before 9.00 pm. Separate rules apply to advertising - see rule 22 of Part C.

Ethical and legal constraints with the media sector

People in the creative and media industries follow certain rules and regulations here is a list below.

Broadcasting act 1990

The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, often regarded by both its supporters and its critics as a quintessential example of Thatcherism. The aim of the Act was to reform the entire structure of British broadcasting; British television, in particular, had earlier been described by Margaret Thatcher as "the last bastion of restrictive practices". Is a series of laws that relate to of what is legal and illegal to broadcast on television and radio in the uk.


Official Secrets act


The Official Secrets Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India and Malaysia and formerly in New Zealand for legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security.


Obscene publications act 1959


The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene materials was governed by the common law case of R v Hicklin, which had no exceptions for artistic merit or the public good.


Films Act 1985

The Films Act 1985 dissolved the British Film Fund Agency, ending the Eady levy system established in 1951. The Act also abolished the Cinematograph Film Council and dissolved the National Film Finance Corporation, transferring its assets to British Screen Finance Limited. The Act repealed the Films Acts 1960-1980 and also repealed certain provisions of the Finance Acts 1982 and 1984 and substituted new provisions for determining whether or not a film was 'British' film eligible for capital allowances.

Video recordings act 1984

The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office.

Race relations act 1976

The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race.Items that are covered include discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and national origin in the fields of employment, the provision of goods and services, education and public functions.

Human Rights act 1998

The Human Rights Act 1998 gives further legal effect in the UK to the fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. These rights not only impact matters of life and death, they also affect the rights you have in your everyday life: what you can say and do your beliefs, your right to a fair trial and other similar basic entitlements.

Licensing act 2003

The Licensing Act of 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that applies only to England and Wales. The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night refreshment. Permission to carry on some or all of these licensable activities will now be contained in a single license, the premises license, replacing several different and complex schemes.

Privacy Laws

Privacy law refers to the laws which deal with the regulation of personal information about individuals which can be collected by governments and other public as well as private organizations and its storage and use. Privacy laws can be broadly classified into: General privacy laws have an overall bearing on the personal information of individuals and affect the policies that govern many different areas of information. Privacy in English law is a rapidly developing area of English law that considers in what situations an individual has a legal right to informational privacy, that is to say the protection of personal (or private) information from misuse or unauthorised disclosur^. Privacy law is distinct from those laws such as trespass or assault that are designed to protect physical privacy. Such laws are generally considered as part of criminal law or the law of tort. Historically, English common law has recognised no general right or tort of privacy, and was offered only limited protection through the doctrine of breach of confidence and a "piecemeal" collection of related legislation on topics like harassment and data protection.            


Copyright


Copyright can protect:

• literary works, including novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, song lyrics, newspaper articles and some types of database
• dramatic works, including dance or mime
• musical works
• artistic works, including paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps and logos
• layouts or typographical arrangements used to publish a work, for a book for instance
• recordings of a work, including sound and film
• broadcasts of a work

You should only copy or use a work protected by copyright with the copyright owner's permission.
Copyright applies to any medium. This means that you must not reproduce copyright protected work in another medium without permission. This includes, publishing photographs on the internet, making a sound recording of a book, a painting of a photograph and so on.
Copyright does not protect ideas for a work.  It is only when the work itself is fixed, for example in writing, that copyright automatically protects it. This means that you do not have to apply for copyright.
A copyright protected work can have more than one copyright, or another intellectual property (IP) right, connected to it.  For example, an album of music can have separate copyrights for individual songs, sound recordings, artwork, and so on.  Whilst copyright can protect the artwork of your logo, you could also register the logo as a trade mark.
For TV productions and films, copyright may exist on a number of its components, for example, the original screenplay, the music score and so on. If you produced the TV show or film then you would normally obtain the rights to, or gain permission to use, the works required to make the production.
Copyright applies to a musical composition when it is set down in permanent form, either by writing it down or in any other manner. With a song there will usually be more than one copyright associated with it. If you are the composer of the music you will be the author of the musical work and will have copyright in that music. The lyrics of a song are protected separately by copyright as a literary work. The person who writes the lyrics will own the copyright in the words.
Copyright applies to the internet in the same way as material in other media. For example, any photographs you place on the internet will be protected in the same way as other artistic works; any original written work will be protected as a literary work, and so on.


BBFC


The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010
The BBFC rates theatrically released films, and rated videos and video games that forfeited exemption from the Video Recordings Act 1984, which was discovered in August 2009 to be unenforceable until the act was re-enacted by the Video Recordings Act 2010. Legally, local authorities have the power to decide under what circumstances films are shown in cinemas, but they nearly always choose to follow the advice of the BBFC.
The Video Recordings Act requires that video releases not exempt (music, documentary, non-fiction, video games, etc.) under the Act had to be classified, making it illegal to supply any recording that had not been certified. Certificates could restrict release to any age of 18 or under, or to only licensed sex-shops. The government currently designate the BBFC as the authority for certifying video releases. As the law requires the certificate to be displayed on the packaging and media labels of the video recording, in practice only UK releases can be legally sold or hired in the UK, even if a foreign release had identical content.

Ofcom

Ofcom (officially the Office of Communications;  is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003. Ofcom's focus no longer includes some of the technical standards issues overseen by the previous regulatory agencies.
Ofcom's responsibilities are wide-ranging, covering all types of industries and processes. It has a statutory duty to the interests of citizens and consumers by promoting competition, and protecting consumers from what might be considered harmful or offensive material. Some of the main areas Ofcom presides over are licensing, research, codes and policies, complaints, competition and protect the radio spectrum from abuse. Ofcom has a policy to undertake many consultation processes.




                    









LONDON: A British politician defied a court order on Monday by identifying Manchester United’s Ryan Gigg’s as the soccer star fighting a legal battle to prevent newspapers from publishing allegations of an affair.




The release of Giggs’ name will be seen as a victory for the media over celebrities and their lawyers after an increasingly farcical game of cat-and-mouse that prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to promise a review of the country’s privacy laws. Giggs, a Welsh international, has played for English champions Manchester United for two decades and is one of the best known soccer players in the country. Aged 37, he is married with two children, and has an image as one of the sport’s gentlemen. Lawyers representing the player had asked US-based Twitter via a London court for information about the users of the messaging website who published details of his private life. English newspapers have responded to bans taken out by a number of celebrities, including other sports stars and actors, by making references to them in gossip columns in the knowledge that readers, having read up on the Internet, will spot the intention behind the apparently innocent stories. Politicians have also used parliamentary privilege to disclose that former Royal Bank of Scotland head Fred Goodwin had won a gagging order. Goodwin came under fire for taking a generous pension after his bank had to be rescued by the state. A newspaper in Scotland, which has its own legal system, ran a thinly disguised photograph of Giggs on Sunday over an article calling it “unsustainable” to bar reporters from naming the man identified in hundreds of Twitter postings as one of the celebrities using court orders to stifle sex scandals. For weeks, British media have been fighting the growing use by the rich and famous of “super injunctions” — English court orders which prevent publication of unwelcome stories and prohibit journalists from even reporting that a ban is in place.

Code of Practice

A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual, party or organization. Related concepts include ethical codes and honor codes.
The codes of practice provide guidance and lay down expected standards for each of the sectors we regulate. The revised codes are designed to support professionals by giving advice and guidance based on real-life experience. Which basically means the professional will be given a set of rules and regulations to follow in his/her job.

This is the newspaper and periodical industry’s Code of Practice. It is framed and revised by the Editors’ Code Committee made up of independent editors of national,

regional and local newspapers and magazines. The Press Complaints Commission, which has a majority of lay members, is charged with enforcing the Code, using it to

adjudicate complaints. It was ratified by the PCC in September 2009. Clauses marked* are covered by exceptions relating to the public interest.

Media Representation

Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.
The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity - Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the 'cage' of identity) - representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to such demographic factors. Consider, for instance, the issue of 'the gaze'. How do men look at images of women, women at men, men at men and women at  women?

Representation of African-Americans in media

The representation of African-Americans in media has been a major concern in mainstream American culture. Representation, in itself, refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of "reality" such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. For example a programme based in london named Made in Chelsea has a lot of racial relations act as in the show as there is no black persons.