RIGHT, Velankannan D.
The term "moral rights" is a translation of the French term
"droit moral," and refers not to "morals" as advocated by the religious
right, but rather to the ability of authors to control the eventual fate of
their works. An author is said to have the "moral right" to control her
work. The concept of moral rights thus relies on the connection between an
author and her creation. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational,
rather than purely monetary, value of a work to its creator.
A duty is a kind of action that a person may rightfully be
compelled to perform and t hat one may punish for not performing. Legal
duties are obligations one should be compelled to perform by public opinion
or the internal sanction of one's conscience. A moral right is the logical
correlative of a relative moral duty, a duty owed to the right holder
because that is the one who would be harmed by it nonperformance. Why ought
society to defend one in the possession of one's moral rights? Mill's answer
is that this will promote the utility- the greatest well-being of all the
members of the society. Some times to say that someone has a right to do
something is to say merely that to do so would not be to act wrongly, but to
say that someone has a right in the strong sense is to assert that it would
be wrong to prevent one fro m so acting.
In the United States, the term "moral rights" typically refers to the right
of an author to prevent revision, alteration, or distortion of her work,
regardless of who owns the work. Moral rights as outlined in VARA also allow
an author of a visual work to avoid being associated with works that are not
entirely her own, and to prevent the defacement of her works.
The scope of a creator's moral rights is unclear, and differs with cultural
conceptions of authorship and ownership, but may include the creator's right
to receive or decline credit for her work, to prevent her work from being
altered without her permission, to control who owns the
The term "moral rights" is a translation of the French term
"droit moral," and refers not to "morals" as advocated by the religious
right, but rather to the ability of authors to control the eventual fate of
their works. An author is said to have the "moral right" to control her
work. The concept of moral rights thus relies on the connection between an
author and her creation. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational,
rather than purely monetary, value of a work to its creator.
A duty is a kind of action that a person may rightfully be
compelled to perform and t hat one may punish for not performing. Legal
duties are obligations one should be compelled to perform by public opinion
or the internal sanction of one's conscience. A moral right is the logical
correlative of a relative moral duty, a duty owed to the right holder
because that is the one who would be harmed by it nonperformance. Why ought
society to defend one in the possession of one's moral rights? Mill's answer
is that this will promote the utility- the greatest well-being of all the
members of the society. Some times to say that someone has a right to do
something is to say merely that to do so would not be to act wrongly, but to
say that someone has a right in the strong sense is to assert that it would
be wrong to prevent one fro m so acting.
In the United States, the term "moral rights" typically refers to the right
of an author to prevent revision, alteration, or distortion of her work,
regardless of who owns the work. Moral rights as outlined in VARA also allow
an author of a visual work to avoid being associated with works that are not
entirely her own, and to prevent the defacement of her works.
The scope of a creator's moral rights is unclear, and differs with cultural
conceptions of authorship and ownership, but may include the creator's right
to receive or decline credit for her work, to prevent her work from being
altered without her permission, to control who owns the
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