Legal and Ethical Issues
What is Copyright?
Copyright is legal which means that the maker of the movie, DVD, Film or Blu-ray has given an individual the rights to their ideas that they have had for their product, they tell them their ideas so that they can make a profit from them. This will give the person that they gave the copyright permission to get some of the credit of the work that was produced as they was the ones who made the film in different forms such as adverts and trailers. They also did it for the people who will perform the product, those who will get money from the product and many other rights that are related to this.
Copyrights for Hot Fuzz:
The way that this links to Hot Fuzz is that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg wrote the script of the film and they decided to make their film similar to other cop dramas but also make it different by it being a comedy instead of it being a serious drama film they made it have some scenes that are similar to other cop movies but not the same. Universal and Working title own the rights to Hot fuzz film as they are the ones who are the production company that helped Edgar Wright to get the Film released. The company that owns the rights to the DVD and Blu-ray of the movie Hot Fuzz is Universal Pictures because they are the ones that released it on those copies of the movie in the UK but they also produced them in the US as well.
About Illegal downloads:
If people done illegal downloads it would not help the film business for Hot Fuzz as their movie will not be making a profit because people will be watching the movie illegally online and would not be buying tickets or DVD copies of the movie because it is not free. This is a crime because the producers of the movie did not put them online for people to see and they would be getting less money for them as most people would be watching them online because they are available and they will be able to watch them in the comfort of their home without paying any money to watch them.
Offensive Language in films:
The film having any offensive language or scenes will help tell what rating the film should be because of what content that it contains. A film can contain violence but depending on how much violence a film has will determine what age rating the film will be. Like in Hot Fuzz we see violence when the main character Nicholas Angel is fighting the killer in the film and other scenes when things are falling on peoples head. Scenes like this and the language that the characters use such as swear words give the film the rating that it has.
The Video Recording Act:
There was a Video Recording Act that was set up in 1984 and was replaced by the Video Recording Act of 2010. The act that was set up within the UK in the year 1984 was for the films that were made and were offered on sale or to rent was to have a classification of the age rating on it that was agreed with BBFC and it was made as a classifying authority during the year of 1985. The films that were produced were checked by BBFC so that they could put an age restriction on it so that it could be show to the right age groups. Then it was stopped in 2009 and anyone of any age could buy any film that they wanted and then they brought back the Video Recording Act in 2010. Due to Hot Fuzz being released in 2007 they had to have a classification age on it because the act was not stopped yet and the film has scenes that have strong language and violent scenes.