Define: Moral Rights

Moral rights are a set of rights granted to creators of original works that protect their personal and reputational interests in their creations. Unlike economic rights, which focus on the commercial exploitation of works, moral rights emphasize the non-economic aspects of authorship and artistic integrity. These rights typically include the right to attribution (acknowledgment of authorship), the right to integrity (protection against distortion or modification of the work that would harm the creator’s reputation), and in some jurisdictions, the right to withdraw a work from circulation under certain circumstances. Moral rights are recognised in various countries’ copyright laws and are intended to preserve the integrity and dignity of creators’ contributions to culture and society.

In copyright law, rights guaranteed authors by the Berne Convention that are considered personal to the author and that cannot, therefore, be bought, sold or transferred. Moral rights include the right to proclaim authorship of a work, disclaim authorship of a work and object to any modification or use of the work that would be injurious to the author’s reputation. Moral rights are not recognized as such by U.S. Copyright law. The U.S. Copyright Office and the courts take the position that U.S. laws adequately protect artists under individual statutes. For example, Section 106 of the Copyright Act provides that the creator of a work of visual art can control whether her name is on the art and object if the integrity of the work is threatened, two items that fall under the traditional moral rights doctrine. It can be argued, however, that U.S. laws do not entirely protect authors from violations of moral rights. For instance, colourization of films is not addressed by U.S. law, nor is the removal or alteration of certain murals.

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This glossary post was last updated: 29th March, 2024.