Legality and protection acts

Data protection act- this is designed around the storage and handling of data connected to personal details of evryone. Only people you have given permission too can see your details and it is up to them to keep these protected. These details are held for a certain amount of time before being destroyed or deleted. If they fail protecting these details from leaking out to other people then they can recieve a fine or even imprisonment.

Obscene Publication- This act is in place to stop the designs corrupting or influincing others. It is also in place to stop any images deemed inappropriate(e.g necrophylia, dead bodies) from being published. This act is mainly based on the oppinions of the public and the decision to remove an image from public view is mainly decided through the amount of complaints an image gets. The penalty for the publication of these images can lead to up to 2 years imprisonment.

Computer misuse act- This act is put in place to stop people from uploading viruses onto other people's computers or from hacking into someone elses personal files and retrieving personal data. The punishment for this is a fine and possible imprisonment.

Racial and disabled acts- These are put in place so that no advertisements or games etc can discriminate against a member of the public who is of a different race or has a disability. An example of this would be a group of white men in a game assaulting a black game character.

Interlectual property- This act contains the copyright and trademark acts which allows a person to have sole ownership of their own idea. The copyright is automatic so that once someone has an idea and has designed it it is theirs alone and they can sue anyone who copies their design. The trademark act cost £200 to register and allows someone to trademark a brand of design e.g Mickey mouse. No one is legally allowed to copy the design and make any money from it. This allows to person to copy it for personal use but nothing else. However, there are pitfalls in this as someone may be able to alter a design and then claim it as their own and this is when the case is usually sorted in a court of law.