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Law/Ethics

Guide your legal rights with a policy manual

Here’s a summer assignment for leaders of the yearbook staff: revisit your publication policy manual, or create one if you are missing this important document.

In an effort to balance legal rights with what’s right ethically, it’s a good idea to adopt policies that guide the application of law and make provincial rules less arbitrary and more objective. Furthermore, a good policy manual builds staff morale and enhances performance potential.

June 3, 2009

The law and the periphery

The first thing you, as a student journalist, should know about the law is that you should know more than about the law. You also should understand the peripheral areas of the law.

For example, a yearbook editor may think the law protects his decision to include a photo of a student holding a gun in the yearbook. After all, why can’t a feature on student interests include a hunter and National Rifle Association enthusiast?

June 3, 2009

Take a positive approach to legal issues

Sometimes, having the law on your side is not enough. You also may need to be proactive toward possible adversaries.

For example, let’s say you plan a yearbook feature about leisure activities, and you want to include an action photo of a student who is hunting. He’s pointing a gun, and you know that your principal may take issue with the coverage – a student using a weapon in the school yearbook.

June 3, 2009

Law/Ethics

Cover ethics first

In journalism class and on the yearbook staff, cover ethics first.

While understanding law – copyright, libel, invasion of privacy, obscenity, business issues, students’ rights – is important, good ethics help curb abuse of rules and the law and guide staff behavior toward noble goals. Ethics are the key in balancing student rights with responsibilities and respect.

June 3, 2009

Picture Perfect

What do you mean Bubba won’t be in the football team picture?” screamed the angry father. “He was the team. Without him there would have been no postseason play. No championship. No Coach of the Year. No, no…”

April 22, 2000

What Rights Does Copyright Provide?

September 19, 1996

Copyright

As anyone who has ever struggled to drive within the speed limit can tell you, the law can be both a friend and a foe. It sets parameters for acceptable behavior that can help make the world run more fairly, smoothly and safely. But it can also limit our freedom, forcing us to follow someone else’s rules or pay a price for ignoring them.

September 19, 1996

What Cannot be Copyrighted?

These are generally ineligible for copyright because they lack the necessary originality and creativity to distinguish them from the ideas they represent. For example, the words in the well-known airline slogan, “Some people just know how to fly” cannot be copyrighted and, therefore, could be used as a headline or caption in coverage of the school track team.

September 19, 1996

What Does Copyright Protect?

First, the work must be original. This means that the author must have shown at least a small spark of creativity when he made the work. For example, your school’s cheerleading squad could not claim the copyright to a cheer that has been used by other schools, even if they changed words to reflect your team and school name. Second, the work must be “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” This “fixation” requirement means that only works preserved in a tangible form (a book, a newspaper, a video, a CD-ROM disk, etc.) – as opposed to those existing entirely in an artist’s mind – will receive copyright protection.

September 17, 1996

Law/Ethics

Guide your legal rights with a policy manual

The law and the periphery

Take a positive approach to legal issues

Cover ethics first

Picture Perfect

What Rights Does Copyright Provide?

Copyright

What Cannot be Copyrighted?

What Does Copyright Protect?

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