Media / Entertainment industry:
Appearance can be deceptive and very well this is the case of the media industry. The other side of this grand and alluring industry can take a toll on you. It is not to deny that media is vast in its approach and no matter how small or big an industry is, there is always a scope of exploitation if not in the literal sense but it is evident and the same we can say about the entertainment industry no matter how glamorous it looks it too has a bad side to it. With the growth in this industry, the legal issues have also increased to a larger extent and in order to keep a check on this, we have some legal remedies in terms of media laws that relate to the regulation of the telecommunication industry, broadcasting advertising and etc..
There are numerous instances of such exploitation in the media /entertainment industry some of which saw the light of the day and some are still hidden.
The first among them being \”sexual harassment at workplace\”, MeToo movement was founded by Tarana Burke but began as a social phenomenon in October 2017 as a hashtag started by American actress Alyssa Milano who shared her story of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein. Shortly afterward, women from across the world began talking about their survivor stories. In India, however, the MeToo movement didn\’t gain much traction until actress Tanusree Dutta decided to speak up once against actor Nana Patekar. What began as one woman\’s story soon became a phenomenon when the names of powerful men in the country started surfacing.
The Supreme Court in the case of Vishaka Vs State of Rajasthan stated the given below reason:
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A demand or request for social favours
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Sexually coloured remarks
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Showing pornography
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Any other unwelcome physical verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature,
Such shall result or be considered as sexual harassment and will be charged as an offence under the Indian Penal Code. The court observed that the fundamental rights under Article 14[2], 19[3](1)(g), and 21[4]of the Constitution of India states that every profession, trade, or occupation should provide a safe working environment to the employees. The employer in the context of the right to life and the right to live a dignified life in every profession, trade, or occupation should provide a safe working environment for the employees.
The second instance of such exploitation deals with piracy or stealing of content, scripts of writers, and creators be it in digital media or print media.
Piracy refers to the unauthorized use or reproduction of someone’s work or creation. Piracy can also be referred to as Stealing that is taking away any creator’s work and using it for one’s own benefits. It is one of the major examples of the exploitation of an artist and his work. If we date back, most of the works by great authors, writers, etc. have been stealing or copying from someone else, for example, Shakespeare’s Romeo Juliet is the remake of Roman mythology of Pyramus and Thisbe. We have also seen movies being released in some pirated sites before the due date which is completely illegal and in order to prevent such situations the creators should get the work copyrighted.
The third instance is of censor board stopping film release. In the recent case of the movie “Lipstick under my Burkha “the censor board refused to provide certification to the movie for its sexual scenes and abusive words. The film starring Konkon Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, was set in the background of four women of different ages searching for freedom in different respects in a small town in India.” A copy of the central board of film certification letter to the film’s producer Prakash Jha states ‘the story is lady oriented, their fantasy about life. There are continuous sexual scenes, abusive words audio, pornography, and a bit of sensitive touch about one particular section of society hence “film refused”.
This is just one such example of such incident, there have been numerous films and media content which have not seen its release due to these reasons and proper legal remedy of filing suit and actions takes a lot of time and by the time decision is passed, enough damage has already been caused to aggrieved parties. Thus there is a dire need for regulation so that such incidents could be stopped or prevented in the future and creators have a sense of freedom in expressing their view and outing it forward.
The fourth such instance is mental harassment faced by the artist. There have also been cases of sabotaging various media personnel, money laundering and bullying directors, actors, and others by powerful media people. Recently many of the directors and such actors have come forward and spoke about it through the use of social media platform mostly after the death of Actor Sushant Singh Rajput who committed suicide allegedly succumbed to mental harassment; similarly, Director Abhinav Kashyap spoke about the cruel practice done by mainstream media and Bollywood personalities for which he had to pay the price ruining his career. The allegations made by them are quite serious in nature and hence require serious legal actions.
Also, numerous instances of media invading the privacy of creators and artists have also been a matter of legal breach; passing derogatory comments, posting pictures without permission of the party are clear indications of invasion of the right to privacy guaranteed to us.
The fifth instance is of disputes involving contracts, it is evident that many times, there is a breach of contract by producers which was legally binding for them to perform may be in terms of payment, offering a role or a work-related contract and due to which a breach of trust takes place. But new or upcoming artists cannot do much about it because of the big names of the industry or have a threat of career to be ruined which leads to depression and some take the wrong step. Also, it has been noted that a particular artist’s work has been taken away from him and the title has been named after some other person resulting in no recognition of him for his work.
The sixth instance which has recently taken a big leap with the advancement of digital content is stealing or practice of plagiarism. Plagiarism is one of the most common sights of digital content-stealing or piracy, one can copy others work from a website and name it as there’s and nothing much can be done apart from registering your script with the Indian Copyright office, thus giving the writer or creator the sole authority of his/her work. It also states that even if a person copies the work, a proper acknowledgment should be given to its original creator through citation and with the expansion of entertainment industry from movies to a digital platform, cases of digital content-stealing has increased multiple times
Other such exploitation includes less pay to female artists as compared to the male artist for the same work done. Top female artists make half as much as male actors and bring the picture of the gender gap in the media industry. Michelle Williams was paid eight times less than Mark Wahlberg for \”All the Money in the World\” — and 1,500 times less for reshoots. The Sony Pictures email hack in 2014 revealed the end pay gap for the stars of\”American Hustle.\” And despite sharing the same amount of screen time, Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were paid 7% of the movie\’s profits, while Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner each received 9%.
Legal Provisions
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Copyright refers to the exclusive legal right given to an originator or creator of a work for a fixed number of years to print, publish any artistic work for that matter, and according to the provision of the Copyright Act 1957 and Information Technology Act 2000.
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piracy is an offence and any person who accesses to computer or network of computers of any other person and gets access to it and extracts data either through digital means or through hard drives will be charged for compensation which can go up to 1 crore rupees and any person who downloads it too will be held for fine or punishment.
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The Indian government has also passed an amendment to the Cinematograph Amendment Act 1952 which states if a perpetrator records the movies while it is being shot will be held liable for piracy too and the punishment extends to fine, imprisonment, or both and it also extends to the person downloading it.
Conclusion
There are several issues which are faced by all industry and its legal solution needs to be very well known by the people so that they can prevent themselves from being exploited further, especially new artists who chose certain unconventional career needs to have a certain sense of security given to them so that they can come front and speak about these issues and avail justice, it is high time for both. The Government along with the judiciary to pass such regulations and laws so that artists have a sense of freedom for themselves and their work.
-Srabani Behera,
KIIT School of Law
Reference:
LAWBEES 