1. Legal Issues
If using, adapting, recording or performing work that was created by another practitioner, you would
need to investigate the legal issues associated with doing so. You would need to apply for the rights
to perform a show or musical or seek permission to use an image.
Performing Rights:
Performing rights are the right to perform music in public; it is part of copyright law and demands
payment to the music’s composer or lyricist and publisher. Public performance means that the
musician or group who is not the copyright holder is performing a piece of music live, as opposed to
the playback of a pre-recorded song. Performances are considered “public” if they take place in a
public place and the audience is outside of a normal circle of friends and family, including concerts,
night clubs, restaurants etc. public performance also includes broadcast and cable television, radio
and other transmitted performance of a live song. Permission to publicly perform a song must be
obtained from the copyright holder or a collective rights organisation.
This could affect a creative and media practitioner as the permission to perform could be corrupted as
being able to obtain such rights seems difficult and a struggle. The practitioner could also face
financial issues as that is what is required along with permission to be able to perform or put on a
performance to the public.
Copyright:
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of original work
exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is “the right to copy”, but also gives the
copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other
forms, which may perform the work, which may financially benefit from it, and other, related rights. It is
an intellectual property form (like the patent, the trademark and the trade secret) applicable to any
expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete.
This could affect a creative and media practitioner as the permission of copyright means multiple legal
forms would have to be administrated to gain the legal rights. The other difficulties that the practitioner
might face is that the permission might be declined to access copyright which means the practitioner
might have to revaluate the project that the practitioner is on-going with.
Intellectual Property Rights:
Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for
which a set of exclusive rights are recognised and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual
property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as
musical, literacy and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and
designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents,
industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.
This could affect a creative and media practitioner because to access all those rights and to also not
run through them through the product the practitioner is creating. If the practitioner does run through
these rights at all the practitioner might have to revaluate their project or product due to one small
right which might affect the entire project.