Unit 12 assignment 3 –

Legal obligations report

for Aardman

By Annie Magner.
 Contractual – Risk management

Risk management is a process in which People identify, evaluate and control potential threats in an organisation. These threats might be financial, technical or
physical accidents. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires that an Employer must make an assessment addressing the
health and safety risks that could happen whilst at work to their Employees and also to those who come into their workplace.

When doing a risk assessment, the law says that you must consider who may be affected by risks, deal with obvious risks, take precautions so that the risks
are low and that everyone in an organisation is involved in the risk assessment. In the first stage of a risk management process, you must identify any potential
risks you see could happen. In the second stage, you must look at the nature of the risk and see how likely it could occur.

In the third stage, you must evaluate the risk and determine how severe it is and whether you will need to get treatment. In the fourth stage, you need to
look at how you can prevent these risks from happening. The last stage is monitoring and reviewing and in this stage, the person in charge writes up a report
where they identify a risk, if the risk takes place then put down what needs to be done and if the risk actually happened, what was done.

For example, Aardman will have done risk assessments and they would have looked at risks such as potential accidents with camera wires and making sure
that the computers don’t have accidents. In 2005, a storage building owned by Aardman containing objects such as storyboards and film props unfortunately
burnt down in a fire. Aardman probably had another risk assessment after this to prevent something like this from happening again.
 Contractual – Types of contracts

A contract is a legal document where two or more parties agree on something. There
are many types of contracts such as full-time and part-time contracts, zero hour
contracts and partnership agreements. In a full-time or part-time contract, Employers
must make a contract for their employees which includes information such as the
minimum amount of paid holiday they will get, the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and the
minimum time for resting breaks.

A zero hour contract isn’t a legal document but it is an agreement where Employers
can tell Employees when they want to have work from them. A partnership agreement
is a written contract where two or more people agree to come together for a
business.

For example, Aardman will probably have been part of a partnership agreements when
they helped produce films with other studios such as DreamWorks Animation and
StudioCanal. In 2001, Aardman made a contract with Data Return-U.K to manage the
Aardman official website, fan websites for Wallace & Gromit, Rex the Runt, Chicken
Run and Angry Kid.
 Contractual – Non-disclosure agreements

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a contract between one party or more where they agree not to release confidential
information that has been discussed between the parties whilst doing business together. For example, in an NDA, the people
involved may only decide to disclose information that is marked “Confidential”.

The people involved in an NDA may agree to keep certain information disclosed for only a certain amount of time but
information such as names of Customers and personal data about People involved in a business project tend to be always kept
disclosed.

There are three types of NDAs and they are one-way, mutual and a multilateral. A one-way NDA, also known as a unilateral
NDA involves just one party and a mutual NDA, also known as a bilateral NDA involves just two parties. A multilateral NDA is
where there are three or more parties. If a mutual NDA involves parties from different countries, then the NDA will need to
state which country’s law it will be going by because for example, Scotland has a different legal system to England and Wales.
 Contractual – Commissioning process

The commissioning process for TV is where ideas for TV shows are sent to the Broadcaster and
Commissioners decide whether they will broadcast the idea. Aardman will have had to gone
through a commissioning process in order to air the TV shows such as “Creature Comforts”,
which was broadcasted on ITV and “The Morph Files”, which was broadcasted on BBC.

In 2014, the British Film Institute (BFI) decided to fund Aardman Animation’s Development Lab
for two years. This money was to fund developing new animations at Aardman. To enter an idea
for the Lab, Filmmakers had to give their story idea for the film they want to create and say why
they want to create their film using animation instead of live action.

Some requirements for Writers who wanted to apply for the Lab were that they needed to have
been Writers for at least two fictional pieces of work that has been commissioned for television
or radio. One of the requirements for Directors was that they needed at least two credits for
screen-based work including live action feature films, drama/comedy broadcast on television,
animated television or conceptual music videos, commercials or artists’ film and video or in
theatre directing.

One of the requirements for the Producers was that they needed to have at least two producing
credits or have worked as a development executive with a recognised film, television or digital
production company on a complete live action feature film which has been theatrically
released/selected and screened at a major film festival.
 Regulatory issues – Self-regulation

Self-regulation in a business is where a business sets

regulation rules that are not mandated by the Government
or an outside organisation. One of the rules of the Data
Protection Act is that companies and organisations can only
use the Client’s data in the ways that they have told the
Client they will use it for.

Aardman uses Cookies on their website, and they have

stated that they use Cookies for purposes such as to tell
the difference between users of the website and to see
what services you have used on their website.

When it comes to paying their Employees, Aardman must

pay them at least minimum wage and for example, a Junior
Compositor working for Aardman gets paid £16 to £18 per
hour, which is higher than the minimum wage.
 Regulatory issues – Trademarks

A trademark is a symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product. In the
UK, someone or a company would have to apply for a trademark through the government and they can apply on the official
government website. The trademark would only apply in the country that they applied for the trademark and it also costs
money to apply for a trademark. It costs £200 to fill in the form by paper and £170 by paper.

Aardman have trademarks on all of their creations and their titles “Wallace & Gromit”, “Shaun the Sheep”, “Timmy Time” and
“Creature Comforts” are some examples of trademarked titles.
 Regulatory issues – Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is an organisation that makes

sure that adverts in the UK follow the UK advertising codes. People can
complain about adverts which are deceptive, harmful or offensive. They
also look at adverts themselves to check that they are not breaking the
rules.

In 2017, thirty six people went to the ASA to complain about an advert
produced by Aardman for Alzheimer’s Research UK. The reason why they
complained is because the advert featured a young Girl being told that
the reason Santa Claus had stopped delivering Presents is because he has
a disease and they thought that the advert would be upsetting for
Children to watch.

The ASA decided to keep the advert in the open and they stated that the
advert was “Unlikely to cause distress”. Clearcast, a British organisation
which approves what adverts appear on TV cleared the advert around TV
shows that are meant for children 16 or under.
 Regulatory issues – OFCOM

Ofcom, short for Office of Communications is the UK’s communication regulator. They do things like making sure that
someone’s privacy on television on and radio programmes are not invaded and making sure that television and radio do not
contain harmful or offensive content.

They issue the Broadcasting Code and according to Wikipedia, it “Requires that content inappropriate for children should not be
broadcast between the hours of 5:30 AM and 9:00 PM”. This means that content such as swearing, pornography, violence and
racism. People can contact Ofcom by phone or by letter and the address and phone numbers can be found on their official
website.
 Regulatory issues – Copyright law

The copyright designs and patents act 1988 is the current law in the UK when it comes to
copyright. The law states that if someone creates a work, whether it be literature, a play, musical,
art, song, image, video, film, sound recording or typographical arrangement of published editions,
they have the right to control what is done with it.

This means that if someone else wants to use their work in public whether they have edited the
work or not, they would need to have permission from the original Owner. Ideas for a fictional
work are not protected under copyright and names, titles and short phrases, unless these
combine to create a logo because in that case it is protected.

However, names can be trademarked but someone or a company would have to apply for a
trademark and it would only apply in the country that they applied for the trademark. When it
comes to literature, musicals, dramatic and artistic works, copyright only applies for the Creator's
life time and 70 years after their death. The copyright for sound recordings lasts 50 years after the
Creator's death and when it comes to Typographical arrangement of published editions, the
copyright lasts 25 from which it was published.
 Regulatory issues – Censorship

Censorship is when a part of work or speech such as in a Book or in news

that is banned from being put out somewhere. Censorship may come from
places such as the Government or a company and the reasons given for
censorship may be the content is offensive, a threat to safety or explicit. The
difference between government and company censorship is that when a
company censors people, the people are not being prosecuted under the law.

In the UK, TV shows with sexual content, violence, graphic content and
swearing can only be aired after 9:00 pm and before 5:30am. This rule is
known as the watershed and if these rules are broken, then The Office of
Communications (OFCOM) will take the content down.

Aardman does not engage in censoring other organisations or their own

Employees however their content tends to be child-friendly so the only
censorship that would probably take place at Aardman will be the banning of
violence, sexual references, graphic content and profanity in their
productions.
 Professional bodies – British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA)

British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is an

organisation in the UK where Members join a digital
community. Members are connected on a network of people
in the digital industry. They hold events where people in the
digital industry and BIMA Members meet to connect. They
have employed around 11 to 50 Employees.

BIMA have communities where people come together to

network, look at opportunities and share their knowledge.
Think Tanks are a community that each has an appointed
council where people share their knowledge. Being a Member
of BIMA can help grow digital media businesses as you can
meet potential Partners.

They also have an annual Awards Ceremony and Aardman

actually won an award from BIMA for its Shaun the Sheep
themed Home Sheep Home online game.
 Professional bodies – Professional body codes of practice

A professional association (Also known as a professional

body, professional organization, or professional
society) that aims to advocate a specific profession, the
people involved in that profession and the public.

Codes of practice are the rules of regulation for an

professional association or company. If it discusses professional
responsibility then it will include information such as what
behaviour is ethical and in which conditions it is ethical and
hard decisions that will frequently need to be made.

For example, the British Film Institute (BFI) has a code of

conduct for Suppliers of the BFI that aims to make sure that
no one is abused or exploited whilst services and goods are
supplied to the BFI.
 Ethical – Ethical requirements

The Data Protection Act says that organisations, businesses and the government cannot realise personal information of someone. This means that I
cannot put anything confidential about anyone in my Product.There are laws on privacy when it comes to personal information.

According to Gov.uk, the Data Protection Act rules that an organisation, business or the government insures that People’s information is used fairly
and lawfully, used for limited and specifically stated purposes, used in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive, accurate, kept for no longer
than is absolutely necessary, handled according to people’s data protection rights, kept safe and secure, not transferred outside the European
Economic Area without adequate protection.

In the UK, there is no law banning nudity in public, however if it is proven that the Person intended to shock people or cause offense, then that is a
criminal offense. Defamation is where someone damages the reputation of someone by representing them in an untruthful way. There are two
types of defamation and they are libel and slander. Slander is defamation through verbal speech and libel is definition by written speech. If someone
is a Victim of defamation, then they can sue the Person or organisation who defamed them. Companies should not discriminate against anyone
based on race (White, Black, East Asian, Indian etc.), sexuality (Heterosexual, homosexual etc.), gender (Male and Female), ability
(Physical disability, mental disability, no disability) ,nationality (British and otherwise), socio economic (Working class, middle class
etc.) ,regionalism (North and south of UK), age (Young and old) and beliefs (Religion, no religion, political beliefs etc.).
 Ethical – Social issues and sensitivies

Companies should be aware of social issues and sensitivities of people and there and some forms of social insensitivity can lead
to prosecution. Certain words can be offensive to certain people such as racist and sexist slurs.

In the UK, it is against the law to fire an Employee because of their age, they are or are becoming a transsexual person, they are
married or in a civil partnership, they are pregnant or on maternity leave, they have a disability, because of their race including
colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, because of their religion, belief or lack of religion/belief, because of their sex or
sexual orientation.
 Ethical – Cultural issues and language

Since you may be working with someone from a different

culture than yours, you should avoid doing things such as
making generalisations about people in a culture.

Cultural sensitivity is where someone knows that there

are lots of cultures based on based on religion, ethnicity,
nationality and other factors like that. Certain words can
be offensive to certain people such as racial and sexist
slurs.

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 states that
offences such as deliberately provoking hatred of a racial
group, putting out racist material to the public and creating
racist websites on the Internet can lead to arrests.
 Ethical – Representation of gender

It is important that genders are represented in big

companies and this applies to media companies as well. The
reason why it is important is because if a large company
like Aardman has a similar somewhat similar amount of
people in each gender at their workplace, then they come
across as open minded.

It is against the law to discriminate at work based on

gender and as long as you do not discriminate on the basis
of gender, then you shouldn’t have a big gender gap in your
company.

Aardman has stated that they appreciate diversity in their

workplace and they do this by only hiring based on a
person’s skills, knowledge, abilities and personality suitable
for the role and the company’s business.
 Ethical – Representation of religious beliefs

It is important that more than one religious belief is

represented in a large company. The reason why it is important
is because if a large company like Aardman has Employees that
share more than one religious belief (Or lack of) at their
workplace, then they come across as open minded.

It is against the law to discriminate at work based on their

religious belief or lack of and as long as you do not
discriminate on the basis of those, then you shouldn’t have
more than one type of religious belief (Or lack of) in a large
company.

Aardman has stated that they appreciate diversity in their

workplace and they do this by only hiring based on a person’s
skills, knowledge, abilities and personality suitable for the role
and the company’s business.