Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized
in civil law jurisdictions and first recognized in France and Germany, before
they were included in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works in 1928. While the United States became a signatory to the
convention in 1988, it still does not completely recognize moral rights as part
of copyright law, but rather as part of other bodies of law, such as defamation
or unfair competition. Those jurisdictions that include moral rights in their
copyright statutes are called droit d'auteur states, which literally means
"right of the author".
Moral rights include the right of attribution, the right to have a work
published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the
work. The preserving the integrity of the work bars the work from
alteration, distortion or mutilation. Anything else that may detract from
the artist's relationship with the work even after it leaves the artist's
possession or ownership may bring these moral rights into play. Moral
rights are distinct from any economic rights tied to copyright, thus even if an
artist has assigned his or her rights to a work to a third party he or she still
maintains the moral rights to the work. Some jurisdictions allow for the
waiver of moral rights. In the United States, the Visual Artists Rights
Act of 1990 (VARA) recognizes moral rights, but only applies to works of visual
art.
Berne Convention
Article 6bis of the Berne Convention protects attribution and integrity,
stating:
Independently of the author's economic rights, and even after the transfer of
the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work
and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other
derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to
his honor or reputation.
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, September
9, 1886, art. 6bis, S. Treaty Doc. No. 27, 99th Cong., 2d Sess. 41 (1986).
In most of Europe it is not possible for authors to assign their moral rights
(unlike the copyright itself, which is regarded as an item of property which can
be sold, licensed, lent, mortgaged or given like any other property). They can
agree not to enforce them (and such terms are very common in contracts in
Europe). There may also be a requirement for the author to 'assert' these moral
rights before they can be enforced. In many books, for example, this is done on
a page near the beginning, in and amongst the British Library/Library of
Congress data.
Some European countries also provide for artist resale rights, which mean
that artists are entitled to a portion of the appreciation of the value of their
work each time it is sold. These rights are granted in respect of a non
Anglo-Saxon tradition -- the droits d'auteur concept rather than copyright.
Droits d'auteur, and most legislation implementing it, also grants all creators
various moral rights beyond the economic rights recognized in most copyright
jurisdictions (see also parallel import).
