Copyright

Essay by kitxkatUniversity, Bachelor's December 2004

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'How do 'moral' rights differ from other rights in copyright legislation?'

Within this essay I shall be looking at the differences between 'moral' rights and other copyright rights contained in recent legislation. Namely there were three such moral rights that were introduced into the UK copyright law for the first time in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 . These were, the right of Paternity, the right of Integrity and the right of privacy in certain films and photographs. Also included was, the right to not have the false attribution of Authorship, which already existed but in a somewhat different form under the Copyright Act 1956 . These shall all be discussed in depth with references to specific case law and in comparison with other copyright legislation.

It is firstly necessary to understand the main difference between moral rights and other rights contained in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. They are a totally separate group of rights to those that were already in place. Those that existed already including the right to perform for example are all classed as economic rights, this means that they protect the property rights of the person who created the material in question, be it in the form of a written piece of work or a painting.

Moral rights however, seek to protect something other than the economic rights. They are in whole there to protect the person's honour and reputation. They were put in place to protect such attributes, as in a way the creators material is an extension of the creator's personality. Therefore, whatever is done with the material that they may have produced, could have a direct effect upon their reputation.

Moral rights have only recently been introduced into copyright legislation, another country alongside the UK that has...