There are certain legal laws and legislation which control the creative media sector. These laws constrain the things that people working in this sector can and cannot say, do, publish, etc.
Libel Law
Libel and slander are similar, however libel is written accusations and slander is spoken accusations. They are also known collectively as defamation. Defamation is a false accusation or a misinterpration of a person's words or actions. It is often a person or a group of people spreading lies about another person which can damage the other person. If this happens, the person affected can take the accuser to court and sue them for damages.
In August 2011, cases of online libel cases had apparently doubled mainly due to social networking sites and the rise in their popularity. In March 2012 the first Twitter libel case was taken to court. Former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns sued Lalit Modi for £90, 000 in damages. It was reported that Lalit Modi had posted a tweet about Cairns, who found the tweet offensive and damaging to his reputation.
Obscene Publications Act
The Obscene Publications Act was first used in 1857. This gave the courts permission to ban and destroy material which was deemed too obscene to be seen by the public. The first person to be imprisoned under this act was a man named William Dugdale who was sentenced to a long term in prison after his books were deemed to be too pornographic. This act was revised in 1959 and 1964 as the previous act did not make exceptions for artistic merit. Under this act, the works should be seen as a whole, not just certain parts, and must be depraving and corruptive in nature. If, however, the work is seen as in the interest of art, science, literature of other aspects of the public interest, then it cannot not be found to be in breach of this act.
A recent example of a banned film under this act, is the Human Centipede 2. The British Board of Film Classification has denied the film an 18 certificate as they say it is a "real risk" to the public.
Copyright and Intellectual Property Law
The current UK copyright law is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This act gives the creators of artistic works the right to control their material and works and the ways in which they are used. This means, for example, that downloading a song on the internet for free, without the artist's permission would be a breach of copyright law.
In 2012, Apple took Samsung to court after Samsung alledgedly stole Apple's iPad idea. The case was dropped after the judge found that few people would confuse Apple's iPad with Samsung's tablet.
The Broadcasting Act
The Broadcasting Act of 1990 was a reformation of telvision liscensing which led to the reinstatement of two regulatory bodies: The Independent Television Commission and Radio Authority. The Independent Television Commission was set up to regulate all television services in the UK, with the exception of the BBC and later, Channel 4. The Act put ITV up for sale, and it was to be awarded on financial grounds. The Act also introduced Channel 5 and introduced cross-media holdings to prevent ownership being concentrated in too few hands.
Privacy Law
In the UK, there is no law directly concerned with privacy. However, the Human Rights Act of 1998 states that "everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." This provides leeway, however, as it only states that one should have "respect for" a person's privacy, and does not say that they cannot interfere if they wish to.
In mid-2011, it was revealed that News of the World, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, had hacked the phones of several members of the public who were in the news for various reasons at the time, as well as celebrities. This is a popular example of invaded privacy, which could suggest that privacy laws in the UK need to be reformed.
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