Moral Rights

Moral rights have nothing to do with morality.

Moral Rights

Refer to the rights of creators to protect the integrity and reputations of their works and by extension, protect their personal reputations.

If an author believes that a derivative work distorts, mutilates, or otherwise modifies the images or personalities of their characters, or that a derivative work is simply an inferior work, the author may sue. They can claim that the derivative work infringes on the integrity of the original work, and by association, diminishes the original author’s reputation.

A second moral right is that works should be properly attributed to their creators.

Moral rights are separate from copyrights.

Copyright vs Moral Rights

Copyrights refer to a creator’s commercial rights, whereas moral rights refer to a creator’s personal and reputational rights

In respect to a work, the work’s creator holds the moral rights. They cannot be assigned to another person or entity, in the way that copyrights can be sold or assigned.