Re: Copyright of laws

On Tue, 22 Nov 1994, Charles E. Keller wrote:
>
> Perhaps someone would enlighten us as to what this legal "right"
> is, how it might be violated, and its intended purpose. I assume
> this is not a form of intellectual property created by Jerry Falwell
> et. al. since it appears to be UK law. ;-)
>
> Any thoughts as to why the US objects to "moral rights" might be
> interesting as well.

Moral rights are a continental European concept which are based on the view that a creator's work is an extension of their personality, and they should therefore have certain inalienable rights, including the right to defend their works against distortion, mutilation, and other derogatory treatment which is unreasonably prejudicial to his or her honour or reputation (the right of "integrity") and the right to be identified as the author of a work (the right of "attribution"). This is the more acceptible face of moral rights and it is what the Australian government plans to introduce shortly. There are other moral rights which have a tendency to get people a bit worked up, especially the right of withdrawal (ie, the creator decides he or she is not happy with the work and demands it be returned) and the droite de suite (ie, the right to claim a share of the proceeds of any re-selling or trade in a work).

A good example where an artist may believe their moral rights have been breached is where, say, a sculptor creates a work for the foyer of a new building, only to find that it is subsequently chopped in half to fit another space (true story I'm told). Another story involved a rather costly painting being "touched up" with an array of big spots so that it would match the spotty fabric on a nearby lounge suite.

    | Jamie Wodetzki, Copyright Research Officer   \ / Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services A C L I S PO Box E202 Queen Victoria Terrace Canberra ACT 2600   / \ Tel +61 6 262 1273 Fax +61 6 273 4493    / \ Email j.wodetzki[_at_]nla.gov.au

"Bam, bas, bat, bamis, batis, bant!" - not bad Latin, eh? Received on Wed Nov 23 1994 - 03:42:32 GMT