Jessica Silliman
Luke Cavanaugh was an assistant editor at a large-scale, Los Angeles-based company which produced movie trailers, television spots, and other promotional material. As assistant editor, Luke's main responsibility was to take the "editor's cut" of a film and break it down to get it ready for promotional distribution and sound mixing.
Luke's job dealt heavily with confidentiality. Friends and family members would often ask him for "the dirt" on the latest releases, especially with large-scale Hollywood productions. Because of these external factors, Luke and all other employee s of the production company were forced to sign confidentiality agreements at the beginning of employment. If these agreements were breached, the employee could be terminated and legally prosecuted.
The company had suffered from "leaks" in the past that resulted in harmful consequences such as lawsuits by the affected production companies. Most recently, Luke worked on the trailer for a highly anticipated third film of a trilogy. Hollywood and its many fans were itching to get a glimpse of the latest special effects and techniques used in the film. Luke's family and friends, though they were aware of his contractual obligations, pressured him to tell them about the film. Luke refused.
"I would undoubtedly choose not to do something like this not just because it's unethical-but because I could get fired," he said.
Even with the tight security, Luke arrived at work one morning to find that his trailer had leaked onto the Internet and was available on fan websites and blogs. The trailer had already been passed for inspection to other employees, so it was impossible to determine where the leak originated. Luke worried about the security of his job-although this leak wasn't his fault, he feared repercussions from the filmmaker and producers who entrusted him with their movie.
To his surprise, the leaked version of the trailer inspired a cult following in advance of the upcoming release. Instead of hurting sales and revealing secrets, the leaked trailer drew a bigger crowd than expected and sparked unintentional advertising via the Internet.
"I take the confidentiality agreements seriously-anyone in this industry has to," said Luke. "I don' t know who leaked the video, but I'm lucky that it helped the movie. If it hadn't, I would have faced a lot of pressure from those above me and struggled to regain their trust."
Discussion Questions: (PLEASE NO PLAGIARISM)
Jessica Silliman was a 2006-07 Hackworth Fellow at The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
June 2007
Answer= Yes, as per the confidentiality contract that was signed by Luke, he cannot convey anything related to the movies to any of his friends or family members.
Answer= The acceptable requirements of the confidentiality agreement with an employee are that all the terms and conditions must be as per the laws and no basic or fundamental rights of the employee should be breached. If all the clauses mentioned in the agreement is related to the confidentiality of company-related data, it will be acceptable, but if these rules and regulations impose some type of regulations that breach the fundamental right of the employee, then it will not be acceptable.
Answer= Yes, as the company has the policy of not disclosing anything about the project in hand, so no information must be leaked to anyone outside of the organization despite being benefited by the leak. This is an illegal act from the side of the employee
Answer= This is laying a very wrong precedent by not investigating the leak as it may motivate the others to get involved in the same types of acts that may harm the company in the future.
Answer = The main harm in the leaked trailer is that it breaches the legal contract that was formed between the employer and employee and the employer with its client
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