Moral rights

Moral rights are a series of rights which protect an author’s / creator’s / film director’s personality as expressed in his or her work. They apply to literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and also to films. Unlike copyright, they cannot be sold or assigned, though they may be waived. On the death of the author / creator / director, moral rights in a work pass to his or her estate and may be enforced by it.

The rights are as follows.

1. The right of attribution
   The author / creator / director of a work has the right to be identified as such. Before this right can be enforced, it must have been previously asserted or claimed, e.g. a statement to this effect can often be found on the reverse of a book’s title page. However, for staff and students, it is good practice always to appropriately acknowledge the author / creator / director of a work, regardless of whether this right has been claimed.
   
   This right does not apply where an employer of an author / creator / director is the first owner of the copyright and approved the publication or use of the work.
   
2. The right of integrity
   The author / creator / director has a right to object to derogatory treatment of their work, e.g. alterations, additions, deletions etc. which might be judged distort or mutilate it.
   
   Staff and students should take great care, particularly when working with digitised material such as images, not to do anything which might contravene this right: clipping, colour changing and other alterations could amount to derogatory treatment.
   
   This right does not apply where an employer of an author / creator / director is the first owner of the copyright and approved the treatment of the work.
   
   This right and the right of attribution described above last for the same period as copyright – usually 70 years after the author’s / creator’s /director’s death.
   
3. False attribution
   Any person has the right not to have not to have work knowingly falsely attributed to them as author / creator / director.
   
   This right lasts until 20 years after a person’s death.