 So we talked in a different video about some of the ethical considerations that we have as people who practice public relations, but in addition to that there are some legal issues and and principles to keep in mind as we engage in public relations. So let's talk briefly about the law and public relations. There are a couple of common legal issues in public relations that we should be aware of. First and foremost is free speech. We enjoy free speech in the United States and that works for us as public relations practitioners. It also works against us. People are allowed to shout as loudly as they wish against whatever cause we're representing, whatever idea we're representing, whatever we're trying to project there. People have the right to argue against that and do so loudly and do so publicly within certain contexts. So as much as we enjoy free speech on our side of public relations, we also have to understand that it works both ways, that people working against us have that legal right as well. So we ought to appreciate that on both sides of things. Let's have to be concerned with the idea of defamation. Defamation is making a statement that can be proven false with the intention of causing harm to another's reputation or livelihood. So there has to be not only the fact that it can be proven false, but that it can be proven that you were intentionally doing so with the idea of causing harm to their reputation or livelihood. Now, we need to remember that through two types of defamation, defamation is a broader term and more specifically we can engage in or accuse others of slander and libel. Slander and libel are both types of defamation. The only real difference is that libel is written and slander is spoken. So when we write something down, if it's in a blog, if it's in a book, a newspaper, a magazine, whatever, if we write something down and it would consist of defamation, that would be considered libel. But if we say it out loud at a public event, in a podcast, on TV or wherever, if it's spoken, then that would be considered slander. But slander and libel are both forms of defamation. And we need to be aware of that and cautious regard against that as public relations practitioners and also be aware of them on the lookout for it from other people. It's not okay for other people to defame us or our clients either. So we need to be conscientious of disclosure in public relations when we are putting forth a product or an idea or something. If we are officially connected with an organization that's paying us to do so and sponsoring that, certainly we need to disclose that. You see that all the time with influencers in social media, for example. You may see this influencer post and they're talking about, you'll catch me, Banana Republic all summer or whatever, all season long. But you'll also notice up here in this corner, it says, paid partnership with Banana Republic. We have an obligation as public relations practitioners to identify, okay, this is somebody that we are really financially engaged with that is either paying for this, for us to do this, for us to say this, we need to be aware of that or be conscientious of saying, no, this is not a paid promotion. We're not financially in league with this organization or this cause. But whatever the case, we need to identify clearly and disclose any connection that we would have with a sponsoring organization. Well, be careful of a copyright and fair use arrangements. So if we're using material that is copyrighted, obviously, we need to have permission for that. We need to pay for it if necessary and so forth and be aware of not violating copyright law. We also need to understand fair use that some, you know, for example, I'm using some different images and I use different things for these videos. And I do so really under the guise of fair use that I'm not making money off of this. This is not my, I'm using this for educational purposes, primarily for my classes. I mean, it's publicly available, but the reason I make these videos is for my classes. This is really fair use. So copyright laws are different in that regard, but we need to be conscientious of copyright and fair use laws and legal obligations as we engage in different public relations activities. We also need to understand privacy. The right of privacy provides somebody with the idea that they can have this sense of privacy without, and when we violate that, what we're doing is causing harm that is caused by the dissemination of truthful, but private information, information that may be truthful, maybe accurate, but it's considered private information and not something that is for public consumption. So we need to be conscious of that too. And, you know, obviously there are some issues, some gray areas with people like celebrities or public figures that give up a certain extent of privacy. But even then, we get into this ethical area of, for example, celebrities and their kids. Celebrities are people in the public limelight and they choose that as their profession, but does that make their kids fair game? You know, ethically speaking, most people would say probably not that, you know, using pictures of images or any connection to their children who have not chosen that, unless they've chosen to be in that public spotlight, would not be ethical, but it might be legal, but it's not necessarily ethical. So we need to be aware of not only the right to privacy legally, but also then kind of in an ethical sense where we cross that line and where are those lines for us. So as you can see, again, we didn't get into these in great detail, but there are some legal issues that we need to consider as practitioners of public relations. So if you're going to be entering into the field of public relations, working in public relations, we really do need to have an understanding of these different legal implications and how they impact the work that we do and the choices that we make in that field. If you have questions about the law and public relations or ethics in public relations, anything along those lines, feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you there. In the meantime, I hope that you have a new understanding of the limitations of what is and what is not allowed in public relations. And it's certainly not, everything is fair game and anything is legal and anything is ethical. There are certainly restrictions on these things that we have a responsibility to both know and then to follow.