A few points to keep in mind when creating a website for a consumer audience would be:
- Intellectual Property Rights (IP)
- Moral and paternal rights
- Permissions
- Relations with clients
- Sensitivity to other social groups
- Representation
- Computer misuse
- Race Relations act
- Obscene Publications act
- Contracts
Information below has been gathered through other websites or blogs as well as Teachings and classes as part of my apprenticeship.
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property law protects the legal rights of creators and owners in relation to intellectual creativity. It lets people own the work they create. Intellectual property rights (IPR) are, broadly, rights granted to creators and owners of works that are the result of human intellectual creativity. These works can be in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic domains. They can be in the form of an invention, a manuscript, a suite of software, or a business name, as examples:
Copyrights – Copyright protects original literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works, sound recordings, films or broadcasts, and the typographical arrangement (layout) of published editions. Software (computer programs) and databases may be protected as literary works, in addition to other possible rights. Software copyright is not essentially different from any other sort of copyright.
Trademark – Trademarks are symbols that differentiate goods and services in the marketplace (like brand names and logos). They can be used as marketing tools so that customers can recognize particular products or services. The trademark can be, for example, words, logos or a combination of both and distinguishes particular goods and services from those of competitors.
Patent – A patent is an intellectual property right, granted to an inventor by a country’s government as a territorial right, usually for twenty years. Patents protect the features and processes that make things work, allowing inventors to profit from their inventions. It protects new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of and how they are made.
Design Rights – Designs protect the physical appearance and visual appeal of products. In the United Kingdom, designs are protected in two ways.
- Registered Designs
- Un registered Designs
A registered design is a legal right that protects the overall visual appearance of a product in the geographical area in which it is registered. The visual features that form the design include such things as the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture, materials and the ornamentation of the product which, when applied to the product, give it a unique appearance.
If a design is not registered, it may still have some automatic protection by unregistered rights. A design right protects the design from copying.
Database Rights – Irrespective of copyright protection, the database right may protect a database. This is intended to protect and reward investment in the creation and arrangement of databases. This protection can apply to both paper and electronic databases.
Rights for Intellectual property can enter play one of two ways; some will only exist after an application has been created and registration has been accepted. Others will automatically work when the creation of a product of original design or other work of a reputation under a brand name.
(Text From http://www.ipr.co.uk as well as http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/ITLaw01CD/page_03.htm and http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/LegalAreas/CopyrightIPR/IPREssentials.aspx)
Moral and Paternal Rights
Below is an explanation of both moral and paternal rights in web development from
Moral Rights:
Moral rights are rights that the creator of a work is automatically entitled to and which no one else can claim. The moral rights of a work can even remain with the creator after their death. Moral rights exist alongside copyright in certain types of work. Generally, moral rights remain with the author of a work or pass to the author’s estate on death. Unlike copyright, moral rights cannot be assigned (legally transferred). However, they are frequently waived.
Paternal Rights:
The author of a copyright literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or the director of a copyright film has the right to be identified as the author or director of the work. In order to be enforceable, this right needs to be asserted in writing either in the form of a statement on the text itself or by a letter written by the author to the person who will be dealing with the copyright in the work. In other words, if the right to be identified is not asserted in either of these ways, the person may deal with the copyright in the work without being obliged to identify the author. Once the right to be identified is asserted, various people will be bound by such an assertion.
(Text from http://www.mylawyer.co.uk/moral-rights-a-A76063D76416/)
Permissions
As you may know, copyright is given rights to the ownership of a property or product. These rights are given for certain durations. These may differ depending on the product type. Whether an individual or corporation created it and whether it’s been published. This means that no one can use the content without clearance by the copyright owner.
Once the copyright duration has expired, the product becomes available to the public domain. This means that anyone can use the, and exploit, what used to be copyright protected. So be careful.
Sensitivity to other social groups
What you have to come to terms with is that not everyone will like your work or agree with you. However, as a company you need to watch out that there are no direct indications towards certain groups of people. This can hurt your business relations.
Make sure you are fair and treat everyone the same. This will improve your image to the professional world and it is the same for when employing. Treat each employee the same, for the amount of laws around this are very little.
Client Relationships
Keeping good relations with your clients is Key to a successful business. They can provide more clients with good remarks, but more importantly, may return. With this in mind, you should always respect the wishes of a client and treat everyone fairly and the same.
Representation
The way you represent your website or company needs to constantly be checked. Making sure facts are correct, pictures used are copyright checked. Also, make sure that and race, religions and social groups are not offended in anyway. Keep to your websites or company’s reason and policies and reference other places where you got the information you needed.
Computer Misuse
The Computer Misuse Act is designed to protect computer users against wilful attacks and theft of information. Offenses under the act include hacking, unauthorized access to computer systems and purposefully spreading malicious and damaging software (malware), such as viruses. Unauthorized access to modify computers include altering software and data, changing passwords and settings to prevent others accessing the system, interfering with the normal operation of the system to its detriment. Although intention to do wilful damage can not be easily proved, the act makes it an offense for a hacker to access and use a system using another person’s user name, including e-mail, chat and other services. The penalties of breaking the CMA range from fines to imprisonment.
(Text From http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/ITLaw01CD/page_03.htm)
Race Relations Act
The Race Relations Act 1976 forms the legal foundation of protection from racial discrimination in the fields of employment, education, training, housing and the provision of goods, facilities and services. Under this law, ‘racial discrimination’ means treating a person less favourably than others on racial grounds, meaning race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins. This law protects you against people’s actions, not their opinions or beliefs.
(Text from http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/siteinfo/faqs/answers.jsp?id=9508&start=9508)
Obscene Publications Act
The law makes it an offense to publish, whether for gain or not, any content whose effect will tend to “deprave and corrupt” those likely to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it. This could include images of extreme sexual activity such as bestiality, necrophilia, rape or torture.
Contracts
If you’re just starting out, you might be wondering, “What’s so important about having a design contract?” The short answer is to protect you from liability, from not getting paid, and from being forced to do extra work. A contract sets out exactly what the project includes: what will happen, what is payable and what kind of life there is for the project after you sign off. Other important project information, like price and copyright, are also detailed in this contract.
(Text from http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/workflow/writing-the-perfect-web-design-contract/)
Sub Contracting
Subcontracting is very useful in situations where the range of required capabilities for a project is too diverse to be possessed by a single general contractor. In such cases, subcontracting parts of the project that do not form the general contractor’s core competencies may assist in keeping costs under control and mitigate overall project risk.
(Text from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subcontracting.asp#axzz2LugFEkZs)
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the act of one company contracting with another company to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees. Often the company itself could perform the tasks that are outsourced, but in many cases there are financial advantages that come from outsourcing. Many large companies now outsource jobs such as call centre services, e-mail services, and payroll. Separate companies that specialize in each service, and are often located overseas handle these jobs.
(Text from http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-outsourcing.htm)
Working to a brief
Commissioning a website does not start and end with the appointment of a web designer. It starts with you and your team thinking about the purpose of the website: what is it for? What can it deliver for our organisation/community/network? Working through this simple list of key issues will help you better prepared – and will help your web designer exactly what you need.
Much of the groundwork of developing a website should be done before you bring in a web designer. Begin by brainstorming within your own organisation. Invite input from all sides if you wish but designate a smaller team to manage the project and delegate one person to act as point of contact with the designer. If it’s a design team you are working with, establish a single point of contact there too and make sure all communication goes through these two people.
Preparing a brief means you can build a picture of what you want to achieve, and the more complete your design specification is, the fewer changes there will have to be as the project progresses. Changes cost more money and cause delays. This doesn’t have to be a long document – keep it simple and aim for three or four pages of A4 at most, perhaps with Appendices of important information that explains your work in more detail.
(Text from http://www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/websitebriefhttp://www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/websitebrief)
References http://www.ipr.co.uk/ (Accessed August 2012) http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/ITLaw01CD/page_03.htm (Accessed March 2013) http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/LegalAreas/CopyrightIPR/IPREssentials.aspx (Accessed March 2013) http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/siteinfo/faqs/answers.jsp?id=9508&start=9508 (Accessed March 2013) http://www.mylawyer.co.uk/moral-rights-a-A76063D76416/ (Accessed March 2013) http://www.iwf.org.uk/hotline/the-laws/criminally-obscene-adult-content/obscene-publications-act-1959-and-1964 (Accessed March 2013) http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/workflow/writing-the-perfect-web-design-contract/ (Accessed March 2013) http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subcontracting.asp#axzz2LugFEkZs (Accessed March 2013) http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-outsourcing.htm (Accessed March 2013) http://www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/websitebriefhttp://www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/websitebrief (Accessed March 2013)
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