Moral rights
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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 (i.e., it cannot be distorted or otherwise mutilated). 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.
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[edit] 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).
[edit] Moral rights in the United States
[edit] Visual Artists Rights Act
The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) recognizes moral rights, but only applies to works of visual art. VARA, unlike many other U.S. analogs to moral rights, is part of Title 17 of the U.S. Code and is a part of copyright law.
VARA gives qualifying authors the following rights:
- right to claim authorship
- right to prevent the use of one's name on any work the author did not create
- right to prevent use of one's name on any work that has been distorted, mutilated, or modified in a way that would be prejudicial to the author's honor or reputation
- right to prevent distortion, mutilation, or modification that would prejudice the author's honor or reputation
- right to prevent the destruction of a work of art if it is of "recognized stature"
[edit] Adaptation right
Copyright holders have the right to control adaptations, or the preparation of "derivative works." This right is given under copyright law. See 17 U.S.C. § 106.
[edit] Lanham Act
Section 43 of the Lanham Act governs false and misleading advertising, and can apply in some instances to attribution of protected works.
However, it cannot be used to create a moral rights for works outside of the Act. See Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox.
[edit] Courtesy of non-attribution
Authors may choose to use a pseudonym to disclaim authorship of a particular work. One such pseudonym was Alan Smithee, a name used by discontented Hollywood film directors who no longer want to be credited between 1968 and 1999. In case the work is unfinished, the use of a pseudonym may be considered an approval from the original author so the copyright owner could do whatever it takes to finish and market the unwanted work.
The director of Highlander II, Russell Mulcahy, wanted his name removed after the completion bond company took over film production, but he was contractually obliged not to impugn the film and he was told that using a pseudonym would impugn it.
