4. Moral rights

Abstract

There are two different types of rights labelled as ‘moral rights’ in the CDPA: rights for authors referred to as the rights of paternity and integrity; and other rights of all individuals: the right not to be falsely attributed as author of a work; and a right of privacy in privately commissioned photographs and films. These protect non-commercial aspects of the relationship between authors and their works. Thus, they cannot be assigned, and may be enforced even after the author has assigned or licensed their economic rights, and even against the owner or licensee. The rights last as long as copyright does and pass to the author’s beneficiaries on death. Different countries have implemented the Berne rights in different ways. Authors’ moral rights were introduced in 1988 to implement the Berne Convention; the UK does not protect them as fully as other countries, particularly civil law countries.