Internet Safety: Customising Security Settings

With websites like Twitter and Facebook, it is really easy for people you don't know to find you. Developers of websites think about these things and include certain security elements which help you block your status updates, tweets, photos and anything else.

Facebook let's you choose custom security settings so that you are off of the public search, only friends can see wall posts/photos etc.

Internet Safety: Personal Details

Never give out personal details to anyone online.

Examples of personal details:

• Email address.
• Mobile number.
• School name.
• Sports club.
• Arrangements for meeting up with friends.
• Any pictures or videos of yourself, family or friends.
• And any other small pieces of information that can form into an insight into your life and daily activities.

When producing certain information online, it is kept there forever. People can piece information together to find out where you are at certain times. If you are young, this is not a good thing because someone could find you and steal you.


Source: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/internetsafety

Censorship and Libel

In writing, you are allowed to write about specific people, but you must be careful not to defame them, this person look bad. The reason why you don't want to do this is because the person you are sating bad things about may decide to sue you for giving them a bad reputation. Oddly, you are allowed to say what you like to a deceased person as they cannot sue. Personally I don't think this is right because there is nothing or no one to defend this person. Although a dead person doesn't have feelings, it could still affect the family as you are disrespecting them.
Usually if you are writing negative but true facts that you can prove about a certain person you don't need to worry too much, but if you cannot backup what has happened or you make it up, this is bad and you will most likely have a law suit on your hands.


Source: http://www.writewords.org.uk/articles/tips7.asp

Copyright

When writing for a production, you need to understand about copyright. A writer can produce a really good script, and the production could copy it and claim it as theirs. In most countries, you automatically own the copyright when creating something, but the problem is when taking someone to court, you need to prove that you wrote it. This can be done using various methods, one of them could be sending yourself a copy of the work you are writing by recorded delivery. When the mail service deliver your work, don't open it, otherwise you pretty much void the evidence.

Even when quoting other people work, copyright is still in place. When quoting text, you can include up to 400 words in a single quote or 300 words at a time, you are not allowed to use more than a total of 800 words.

Royalty Payments

In smaller productions, there is not much time nor money to make extra elements (such as music or images), or there could even be the problem of requiring a certain image that is not possible to recreate.

However, to overcome this problem, you can use something someone else has made. This requires their permission, and most of the time they will request royalty payments so that they also benefit. Some companies do not charge you royalty payments, but for more high quality work you should expect to pay. The cost of royalty payments vary a lot, you could find yourself paying from £1-£5000. The companies which are free often ask to be credited for their work.

Agent Representation

In the world of writing, writers tend to have agents. Agents can do various tasks for writers, one thing the agent has to do is help find things for writers to write for. They could hear about jobs or they could submit the writers script.
Another task for the agent is to build up a good reputation for the writer. This then can make finding jobs easier for the agent as production companies will ask for that particular writer.
Agents also arrange for the payment for the writer. They also know about negotiating which can help the writer from getting ripped off.
As the agent is working for the writer, they take a certain cut of the money (roughly around 10%). More experienced agents will usually take a larger percentage because they are more skilled.

The Production Process

First of all, you start with the IDEA. This is the rough idea of what the production is going to be about. At this point, the producer will think about taking people on board. Most of the time the producer has someone in mind to write for them, so they will commission them. Other times the idea can come from a freelance writer submitting their idea (most likely as a script).