1. What are moral rights?
Moral rights are a specific type of intellectual property right personal to the author of the work. Moral rights remain with the author even after economic rights (such as copyright) are transferred from the author to another party. Moral rights protect the reputation of the author. Copyright protects the economic interest of the author and attaches to the work.
Moral rights apply to the authors of literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works and cinematograph films. Moral rights are only conferred on natural persons. A corporation cannot own moral rights but can own economic rights such as copyright.
Moral rights include the:
(a) right of attribution: the right to be named as the author of the work;
(b) right against false attribution: which is the right not to have your name attributed as the author of work if you are not the author); and
(c) right of integrity: the right of a person not to have their work subjected to changes which may be derogatory to their reputation.
See Moral Rights Fact Sheet for the term of protection and remedies for infringement.
2. Infringement of Moral Rights
Subject to exceptions infringement occurs if any of an moral rights of the author are not observed reasonably in the circumstances.
The importer of an article into Australia for the purpose of sale or other commercial dealing will infringe the moral rights of the author if the importer knew or should have known that if made in Australia, the article would have been an infringing article. Sale or other commercial dealing with an article where the person knows or should have known the article was an infringing article constitutes an infringement of moral rights.(1)
A thing done to a work with the consent of the author is not an infringement of the moral rights of the author as long as the thing comes within the scope of the consent granted.
3. Internet and moral rights
The internet facilitates the reproduction, dissemination, manipulation and adaptation of digital works. Each such act may constitute an infringement of the moral rights of the author where the attribution to, or integrity of, the author in the digital work is incorrect or derogatory. For example, each time an email is sent and received an attributable or derogatory act is deemed to have occurred.
A person downloading an infringing article from a website outside Australia may be liable for infringing the moral rights of the author.
4. Moral rights management on your website
Your website development agreement should include indemnities from the developer that material on your website does not infringe the moral rights of an author.
5. Potential moral rights problems with interactive websites
Where users are permitted to upload files or content to your website, you can reduce the associated legal risk of moral right infringement as follows:
(a) Specify in the terms and conditions of website use:
* you are authorised to reproduce, use, adapt, maipulate and remove the uploaded files, content or works without permission;
* you are not responsible for determining content uploaded to the website;
* people posting material to the site indemnify you for any loss arising from moral rights infringement; and
* non-liability to readers for moral rights infringement.
(b) Implement procedures to remove infringing material upon notification and consider implementing an audit policy to review and remove infringing material.
See Terms and Conditions of Website Use
Other relevant Articles on this site:
Other ISP liability
Terms and conditions of website
Ownership of content
Other relevant Fact Sheets:
Copyright
Moral Rights
End Notes
(1) Copyright Act 1968(Cth) sections 195AU, 195AV.