Chapter 11

Laws and Regulations

Profanity, Indecency and Obscenity

Profanity swearing , cursing , bad language, foul speech , vulgar , bad word, bad language, adult language. Irreverent use of the name of God.

Indecency - not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society. Offensive to good taste especially in sexual matters. Offending against sexual mores in conduct or appearance
Obscenity - statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time Problem is the changing definitions of these words what is considered indecent may be perfectly accepted in the next decade. To be obscene a program must contain sexual acts in an offensive manner, lack of serious artistic, literary, political or scientific value. Radio potential of obscenity lyrics of some modern songs Rules are not strict for cable as for broadcast. People know what there are subscribing Adult programming needs to be scrambled or offered between 10pm till 6am Home video vulnerable to obscenity problems Video games and movies codes that help keep them out of trouble. The problem is enforcing the codes. Internet is worse

Libel, Slander and Invasion of Privacy

Libel defamation of character by published words Slander defamation by spoken words Invasion of Privacy how information is gathered. Slander carries less penalty than libel it is not in a permanent form to be widely disseminated. To win a libel suite, a public must prove that a journalist acted with actual malice. By the late 1970s TV was a major source of information. A lot of libel cased against TV Privacy law allow a person to be left alone Reporters cannot trespass on a persons property and take photo through the bedroom window. Hidden cameras , hidden microphones, private facts Privacy on the internet thorny topic. For children need to have parental permission before collecting information But children can easily lie about their age and some say having to get parental permission is a violation of the childs privacy

Copyright
is one that affects most aspects of electronic media stem form the U.S Constitution authorize Congress to promote science and art by giving authors and inventors exclusive rights to their works for a limited time The Copyright Act 1909 14 years The Copyright Law passed in 1976 set the length of the copy right at 50 years after the death of a works creator and at 75 years for a collaborative works for hire such as movies. In 1998 amended to extend another 20 years for both Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck about to become 75 years old and would have no longer been copyrighted After copyrights run out can put in public domain. No permission is needed Deals with audio / video production often pay a fee before they can include copyrighted music, photograph, film clips and others. Having an organization to collect and distribute it Music Licenses Blanket licensing one yearly fee Per-program fee different rate for different program Needle drop fee pay directly to the copyright holder. Common method for movies Issue of piracy Digital Rights Management (DRM) scrambling video signals, digital fingerprints

Licensing
no license no operate after receiving a license experience little supervision until license renewal time sometimes license renewal will involve the public petition to deny for license renewal unless they committed serious acts their license will be renewed

Ownership
who owns media under what conditions controlling monopoly numerous mergers and acquisitions the trend allowing companies to have more than one stations in the same market cross-ownership newspaper company owning a TV Station

Equal Time
in reality equal opportunity in effect only during periods of election campaigns and deals only with people who have officially declared for political office. all candidate must be able to purchase time at the same rate

Issues and the Future

The internet the twist given are new. People can access and alter it Other new technologies pose problem too Application of the wireless world will keep lawyers occupied copyright need to rethink the concept how about musicians? telecommunications industries? deregulations Emergency Alert System is it still relevant ?

- FIN sites.google.com/site/mrfaizullecture