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Creation

Creation Ethics

Developing creative storytelling outputs often triggers several legal, ethical and moral questions, that should be addressed early in the process. This page guides you through some key issues.

On this page

Who benefits from your creation?

One of the issues extensively discussed in tourism and heritage research is commodification of local culture. This may include individuals and organisations gaining financial benefits from stories that have profound historical, spiritual and personal meanings for people (who may not directly benefit themselves).

Many examples can be considered here, ranging from souvenir shops at the sites of human suffering (e.g. Ground Zero Monument or Peterhead Prison Museum) to displaying the wealth of people involved in slavery in the tours of grand mansions and art galleries. There are also examples where stories told to visitors, whether it is in the form of oral storytelling or selling local crafts and artefacts in village markets, can bring notable benefits to local communities – economic, social and cultural.

As such, your creative storytelling output may lead to a range of impacts (positive and negative), understanding these can help you to ensure that your project is cognisant of these impacts and can explore (if relevant) ways to strengthen or minimise these effects.

Questions to answer:

  • Who will benefit from the creative storytelling output? And how?
  • How can you maximise positive benefits and minimise negative impacts?

Who owns the Intellectual Property?

Following on from questions discussed in the Voice section, it is important to check the legal copyright question of recreating and retelling a story. While you will own copyright on your own creation, the original story will have its own legal attributes. In this guide we can only advise on questions to ask as you consider Intellectual Property (IP) and copyright regulations. We are not able to definitively advise on legal matters and you should seek specialist advice if you are unsure.

Questions to answer:

  • Who legally owns the copyright (or wider IP) for the story(ies) you have chosen for your creation?
  • Do you have a creative licence to use/re-tell the story? If you do, does it allow for editing/changing the original story?
  • If you don’t, can you obtain it?
  • What credit should you give to the owners of the story and how?
Case study - Orkney Folklore Trail

Further reading

Intellectual Property in the UK
 

How will this creation be used?

In addition, you might want to consider how your creation (not the original story) will be used in the future.

Questions to answer:

  • Is your creation perishable/consumable?
  • Is your creation a display piece that will be placed in a permanent or temporary exhibition?
  • If you intend to display the story in multiple locations – are these appropriate for it?
  • Will your creation be sold (and re-sold)?
  • Can the creation be reproduced (and this includes whether visitors can take photographs or record the telling of the story, if it is in oral form)?
  • Can someone else profit from your creation of the story in the future? Is this appropriate?

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