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Monday, December 10, 2012

New Codes for Advertising in the UK in Force From 1-9-2010 - A Quick Checklist of the Key Changes

CAP (British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing Code) and BCAP (Broadcasting Advertising Standards Code) were revised in March 2010 following a public consultation and have now come into effect.

The new rules reinforce the principle that "all advertising should be legal, decent, honest and truthful" and contain a number of key changes regarding consumer protection and social responsibility.

In particular, ~Television and radio advertising has been consolidated in one new broadcast Code; ~Television and radio advertising is required to have regard to and consider social responsibility; ~The new broadcast and non-broadcast Codes contain similar rules in key areas such as misleading advertising, harm and offence; ~The new Codes are designed to be simple, user-friendly providing useful guidance.

Key changes

Consumer protection: ~ The new Codes include clarification on how to use the word "free" and other qualifications in marketing communications. ~ Price statements must take into account guidance from BIS. ~ The new CAP Code will contain a specific requirement that debt advice and debt solutions advertisements should comply with guidance from the OFT. ~ New rules oblige the marketing manager of prize promotions to be clear about the number and nature of prizes, including those that are available to win and those that are guaranteed to be won, as well as ensuring that recipients of "instant wins" are able to obtain their prize quickly and easily.

Distance Selling ~ The BCAP is now aligned with the laws on distance selling, clarifying that the consumer can cancel within 7 days for any reason. ~ Advertisers must fulfill orders within 30 days unless they have agreed a longer period. ~ The Codes also include rules requiring the marketing manager to make clear his/her identity.

Children: ~ Marketers are now prevented from collecting personal information from children under 12 years old without obtaining the consent of their parents or guardian. ~ Further restrictions exist for the collection of information from the under 16s. ~ New rules guide advertisers so that they do not to fall foul of the ban on exhorting a child to buy a product or persuading adults to buy a product for them, since this ban is a legal requirement. ~ Advertisements for age-restricted computer and console games should comply with new television and radio scheduling requirements. ~ Advertisements are prohibited from exploiting the trust that children and young people place in parents, teachers or other people. ~ Competitions directed to children must include all significant qualifying conditions and where appropriate parent permission together with a clear end date.

Health: ~ The new Codes reflect the main provisions of the European Regulation on Health and Nutritional Claims. ~ The new Codes reflect the requirements of Directive 2004/24/EC about advertising herbal medicines. ~ A new rule has been introduced in line with an existing television rule to protect people who might be harmed by flashing images in advertising.

Social and environmental responsibility: ~ A new principle of social responsibility is introduced for broadcast advertising, which requires that all advertisements are prepared with a sense of responsibility to the audience and to society. ~ A rule is introduced in the environment section of the Codes preventing marketers from exaggerating the environmental benefits of their products. ~ A new lottery section will be introduced, which will cover the National Lottery and lotteries licensed under the Gambling Act 2005, addressing lottery advertising and making it subject to the same social responsibility rules as other forms of advertising.

This article is for general purposes and guidance only and does not constitute legal or professional advice.

Improve the Bottom Line: Here's How to Capture Value of Intellectual Property Key Features of Trademark Management Software Intellectual Property and the Economics of Entertainment Benefits of Understanding the Value of Your IP Starting Your Career As An Intellectual Property Lawyer

A Brief History of Music Piracy

Music piracy has been in the news recently as the BBC has compiled a list of the most illegally downloaded musicians for difference areas of the UK as well as the UK as a whole, with Ed Sheeran named the most downloaded artist in the country. While this may be a bit of fun, it highlights a serious subject. Music piracy is illegal and illegally downloading music or selling pirated music can lead to criminal charges. When music is pirated artists are not making money from the product they have produced and it is breaking intellectual property law. Any creators, including creators of art such as music, have the legal right to do as they please with their creations, including the right to sell them or let others broadcast them.

History of Music Piracy

The history of music piracy doesn't just go back to being able to download music via the internet. It can be traced back to the 1920's and radio stations playing music without the permission of writers or performers.

Tapes and Bootlegs

The beginning of music piracy being carried out by regular consumers goes back to cassette tapes and the 1960's. From the 1960's it became common for people to record music using blank cassette tapes either from vinyl or other tapes. The quality wasn't great - nowhere near that of purchasing a record - but it was a way of acquiring music without paying for it apart from the cost of the blank cassettes. Although most of this was fairly low-level, such as children recording a tape of their friend's records, there were some who were making money from this by mass-recording and selling copies onto others. It was not easy to make large amounts, though, due to the lack of quality.

Tapes made it possible to record live music, which led to an illegal bootleg industry. Some recorded live concerts, in some cases mass-producing copies of a performance and selling them to fans. Some of these became collector's items as it was an opportunity to have a copy of your favourite artist performing live, something that often wasn't available from shops.

CD's

Compact discs came along in the 1980's and were better quality and longer lasting than vinyl. To begin with theses couldn't be copied as they were read-only. However, computer technology improved and it became possible to copy CD's to the same quality as the original record. This was an opportunity for some recording and selling on copied records to make large amounts of money.

Digital

The more recent rise of digital music has led to much more piracy of music. A number of websites appeared offering user's fee, or very cheap, recordings. This has been clamped down on with legal action taken against these sites with them being taken down as a consequence. There are websites where people can download music legally. This is often cheaper than buying the physical record, for example the CD. Illegal sites are still a problem though. It is possible to record multiple digital copies of music that can be passed on or sold to others. CD's can also be imported into MP3 software many times over, so people can borrow other peoples CD's and make their own digital copies.

Music piracy is not new but it has become more of an issue since the invention of digital music. It is something that may never completely go away but it is being clamped down on by the authorities to limit the chances of guilty parties getting away with copyright theft.

Andrew Marshall ©

Dog Bites: Claim Compensation With the Help of a Lawyer

An increase in the frequency of dog attacks has been noted recently and they mostly involve young children aged 18 and below. Victims of dog-biting incidents usually require hospital treatments which may at least 3 days, depending on the degree of the attack. If the dog involved belonged to someone else, the incident may be considered as a personal injury case where the victim may claim for indemnity of damages. Dog owners are required to update their pets' vaccination schedule. However, some dogs whose shots aren't updated may be carriers of rabies, which is a life-threatening disease. A bite from one of these dogs not only involves physical injuries but also an increased risk of acquiring rabies. In addition, dogs are not the only pets that potentially carry rabies, cats, exotic pets and rodents may also bite and injure innocent victims.

It is important to immediately seek medical help for the patient and report the incident to the police. Some countries have specific laws regarding compensating a victim of a dog or a pet bite, while others do not. Still, this doesn't mean that you cannot seek payment for damages incurred by the victim. Compensation for such personal injury cases will be done by a lawyer professionally and may increase the victim's chances of receiving a settlement. Moreover, in calculating the value of the total damages, a personal lawyer is an expert in putting values to injuries that are otherwise hard to measure. Example, a victim's hospital bills have actual valuation, whereas trauma is much harder to appraise. Also, the extent of the damage related to a person's worth will be considered. To illustrate, a model whose face gets disfigured by a dog bite may receive a higher compensation considering that the victim will probably also lose her modeling job as a result of the dog bite.

When a victim experiences a dog bite, it is important to let the pet owner know the danger that the dog poses if he runs around freely and unleashed. If the dog involve belongs to a particularly notorious breed, your lawyer will only have to point out the notoriety of the dog's breed to the judge to get the victim to be awarded with compensation promptly. However it is also the responsibility of the victim to show that the dog was not provoked in any way and that it could have behaved the same way if someone else was there at the moment instead of the victim. In addition, dog owners may also be responsible for the damage caused by their pets to other people's properties.

Pet owners should be responsible for their pets. If they will not be around for a certain time, then it is their responsibility to bring their pets to a relative for safe-keeping or keep them locked in kennels where they won't be able to cause harm to other people directly or indirectly. There are numerous cases of dog-biting and dog-related accidents that have not been brought to court. If you are someone who would not want to settle things at court, then you may still hire a personal injury lawyer so that you may still be awarded some sort of compensation for the injuries and expenses that you have obtained. If, however, you choose to settle things at court, then there is a bigger chance that you will get a more substantial amount of compensation commensurate to what you have actually gone through during the entire dog-biting experience.

Rules of Thumb For Public Domain Works

Public domain is consists of vast material that includes books, music, photos and information that is available for the public. There are times that you find yourself having difficulty in distinguishing if a certain work belongs to the public domain, because the laws governing it are sometimes complicated and are always changing. However, you need not to worry anymore abut that because here are some terms and conditions for using public domain works as well the rule of the thumb in determining works:

1. First thing about on how to distinguish it and perhaps the most common is when you look at the publication date and the place where it is published and that it is prior to the year 1923, automatically you can say that it is in the realms of public sphere.

2. Now there are some modifications and new rules governing the legality of the publication of a certain work for those works published or released between 1923 and March 1, 1989. Because there are some works that was created during these years that have not been able to follow certain regulations. In other words, some works do not provide a notice of copyright on the work or the renewal of the copyright per statutory deadlines. Specifically, we can say that it is already considered to be a category belonging in the public sphere if a certain work was published in the United States during the range of the year 1923 and 1978 without any notice then we can say that yes it is belonging to the public domain. On the other hand, if the work was publish in the United States during the range of the year 1978 and March 1, 1989 to be exact, still without any notice and registration, then it is still considered to be in the public domain. Even if a certain work was published in the United States during the year 1923 and 1963 with a notice and the copyright do not apply for a renewal, we can still say that it belongs in the United States.

3. Now for those works that has been created after March 1, 1989, works that has published or not are protected by copyrights for 70 years from the date the creator dies. In addition, those works for corporate authorship (works made for hire), the copyright term is the shorter of 95 years from publication or up to 120 years from the date of creation.

Benefit Your Business - Protect Your Intellectual Property

If you have developed a superior way of doing something - from manufacturing, through to software or a business process - then your first move should be to protect your idea from others who might seek to copy it.

It is a good idea to retain an intellectual property lawyer you will advise you on the best ways to use the law to protect your new idea and the man hours that you have put in to it. It may be that you can patent your idea, as vacuum cleaner magnate James Dyson has done successfully. Dyson's company has registered dozens of patents covering innovations in cyclonic air handling technology, and developments to electric motors. Without having this patent, his ideas would have been copied by other manufacturers and he would not have made anywhere near the same amount of money. Alternatively there are options to do with copyright or trademark registration, which may suit your business better and provide adequate protection for your needs.

An experienced intellectual property solicitor will know the latest developments in the law which will effect the protection of IP, they will thus be in the best position to advise you on how to stop others from using your commercial advantage.

A good way to market your business may be by licensing your protected technology or idea to others and take a royalty from them using it. This recognises the value you have created, but allows you to harness the effort of others to help take your new development to a wider marketplace, more quickly. The Apple iPhone is a good example of a innovative product reeling in 3rd parties by allowing them to create apps, which in turn furthers the phone's appeal across the market place.

Intellectual property law is fast paced and constantly developing, therefore chances are if you rely on old documents or cases you will inadequately protect yourself. It is frequently the case that new ideas or process struggle for money in the early days and therefore it is tempting to not pay out for legal advice, however if it turns out that your IP is not adequately protected then you will loose money in the future. By having a soundly protected concept, it is all the easier in the future to defend your unique idea against those who will try to copy or mimic it. Many legal battles are fought over whether one new product or service copies an existing one - and the impact for both parties can be dramatic, particularly if the product has high value or mass market appeal.

The Ethical Use of Intellectual Property

Perhaps because of my writing for a living I view academic integrity as a serious issue. Often in my capacity as "A for hire" ghostwriter, I have seen individuals take work which I have spent hours completing only to claim it as their own. In the course of my various assignments I have often create an article of appropriately 400 words or even fabricated a complete manuscript and graciously permitted another to sign it as their own. I personally could not do this as I view the complete process as not only morally unethical but it would also tend to cast an unfavorable light upon my own sense of values.

In a quote which I once read it stated that "academic integrity is about more than mindlessly following citation rules to escape the perils of plagiarism". I feel that refers to series of mechanical methods of writing where one can possible bypass the official explanation of plagiarism enough to have their work accepted as their own. In the second part concerning the interaction between you and the writer, I sense that a true writer must put himself in the authors shoes and consider how he would react if the situation were reversed. He must read the authors material and digest it properly and than make his own appropriate notes. I have often found work which I have completed on the internet under someone else's byline. This initially angered me but today I take it with a grain of salt. It isn't right but life is too short to get upset about it and justice will eventually prevail.

I feel the important point to be found in this articles information is the fact that with proper note taking many academic plagiarism issue could be effectively avoided. It would appear to be impossible to comprehend any information if you do not at first read the material and as such if you are going to read the data than you may as well take notes and do the assignment the accepted way. It has often been suggested to me that I should consider writing for one of the term paper hack sites on the internet, but I do not cherish the thought of compromising an academic system that has been in force for hundreds of years. I encourage all would be writers whether it is for educational purposes or as a means of livelihood to carefully reveal all references and ensure proper citing while doing proper research and compiling adequate notes on the topic at hand. Only in this way could one avoid the pitfalls of dishonesty associated with their studies.

I would like to present you with an interesting side note concerning plagiarism. During one of my semester courses in college I cited myself in an article which I had written. In fact my complete intent was to create my final paper from the topic of that article. This was properly discussed with the class instructor before hand and he agreed that it would be acceptable. When it was time to submit the final paper I ran it through the copy proofing program used at the universities site and it showed a high degree of plagiarism. I thought nothing about it since the highlighted features originated from my article's information only. Unfortunately, the professor had forgotten about our conversation and rejected my paper. He left me a reply on the order of, "Joe, I sent your paper back to be re-accomplished because of plagiarism. If I looked at it I would have to assign you a grade of zero".

At first I was shocked and than realized what had happen. I informed the instructor and he than apologized as he recalled our conversation, so things can and do happen sometimes.

By Joseph Parish