Privacy law
Privacy law may be relevant, for example, when you are reporting stories about people’s personal or sexual lives, finances, information about their health, or filming them in their house without their permission. It can even sometimes include situations where the person is in a public place – for example, at a funeral.
UK law protects a wide number of works such as films, literary works, artistic works, music, sound recordings and broadcasts. Copyright is simple in theory but it is easy to make mistakes that can be very costly… The idea behind copyright is to reward individuals or companies who create material and protect them against the unauthorised copying of their works.
It also gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to control how these works are used.
Copyright is infringed when a ‘substantial part’ of a work is used without permission. ‘Substantial’, in this context, doesn’t mean how much but how significant the part that is copied is, and can apply to a very small extract.
If you choose to use copyrighted material, consult the Fair Use Guidelines for Music:
a. Use 10% of a song and do not show the finished video out of the classroom.
Do not duplicate, distribute, broadcast, webcast or sell it.
b. Proper attribution must be given when using copyrighted materials. i.e.
“I Am Your Child” written by Barry Manilow/Martin Panzer.
BMG Music/SwanneeBravo Music.
c. The opening screen of the project must include a notice that “certain materials are included under the fair use exemption and have been used according to the multimedia fair use guidelines”.
d. Your fair use of material ends when the project creator loses control of the project’s use: e.g. when it is distributed, copied or broadcast.
