HA3 Task 6 – Legal and Ethical Obligations

Copyright
Copyright normally protects the work that the author has created.
The first owner will normally be the author of the piece, the author is the person who creates the work.
Copyright is different to other forms of IP as it is an automatic right that you can not register with the property office, there are no forms and no fees to pay to get the right.Once created the copyright belongs to you, you need to create a record of your work in order to prove creation and ownership.

Trademark
Trademarks are badges of origin. They mark the goods or services on one business to another this can take many forms: words, slogans, logos, shapes, colours and sounds.
Trade marks are registered for specific or services within individuals. It is possible for others to register identical or similar marks as long as it is different or unconnected class.

Patent
A patent for an invention is granted by the government to the inventor, giving the inventor the right to stop others from making, using or selling the invention without their permission for a limited period.
When the patent is granted the invention becomes the property of the inventor which is like any other form of property or business. Patents have territorial rights a UK patent will only give the holder rights in the UK and stop others from importing the patented product into the UK.

Registered Designs
Registered designs are for the eye appeal of the object,They are applied for at the property office
Britain also has a design right providing automatic protection for 15 years from the date of the creation, even when the design is not applied for.

Ethical
Violence
through violence there are many games violent acts as well as other content related to violence. This may lead many people to believe that playing these types of video games can cause a person to be more violent.

Ratings
The ratings of the games helps parents of young children to pick the right game for there kids. thought others are concerned that the rating system doesn't prevent people from getting video games that are considered to be inappropriate for their age.

Education
Through education there are different things gaming can teach us, some are positive while others are negative.

Stereotyping
stereotyping in the video game industry focuses towards men more than women, many people think this is stereotyping towards women.

Addiction
through addiction and community, participating in an immense amount of time playing video games causing people to become addicted to it, as a result they miss opportunities and activities that could be beneficial for them.