Table of Contents
In Short
- Moral rights in the UK ensure creators are recognised and protect the integrity of their work, even if economic rights are sold or transferred.
- These rights include attribution, objecting to false attribution, objecting to derogatory treatment, and privacy for certain commissioned photos and films.
- Businesses should address moral rights clearly in employment contracts and consider the impact on employee morale.
Tips for Businesses
Clarify moral rights in employee agreements to manage potential disputes over creative works. Consider industry standards before requiring employees to waive rights. Maintaining thorough documentation will help protect both your business and employee interests. Prioritise balanced approaches to attract and retain creative talent while safeguarding company assets.
As a business owner, you have likely created content or marketing materials to build your brand. This creative content made for your business automatically attracts copyright protection. In the UK, your copyrighted material is a potentially valuable business asset. Thus, you can sell or transfer these just like any other asset in your business. However, in addition to economic rights, you also automatically have moral rights over your work. This article explains what moral rights are and what they protect.
Copyright Basics
Copyright protection is a form of intellectual property protection that protects creative works such as:
- books and other literary works;
- drawings;
- artworks;
- music; and
- other works that express ideas.
For example, you probably have a website or brochure in your business so that your customers know how your business can help them. The words and pictures used in this are copyright-protected. Copyright protection arises automatically as soon as you create a work.
You have economic rights in the form of the exclusive right to use your work. You can also benefit financially by licensing or selling that right to others. Furthermore, you also have moral rights concerning the particular creative work that you make.
What Are Moral Rights?
Moral rights are non-economic benefits relating to some copyright works. Although you can licence or sell your exclusive right to use the work you have created, you cannot sell or pass on moral rights; they are intrinsically related to the fact you created those works. You can, however, choose to waive your rights if you wish. In UK law, there are four different types of moral rights. These are the rights to:
- attribution;
- object to false attribution;
- object to derogatory treatment; and
- privacy of certain photographs and films.
Moral rights are personal rights that do not protect all forms of copyright content. They protect literary works (for example, your website content and marketing texts), films, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. Notably, moral rights do not protect sound recordings.
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Who Has Moral Rights?
The person or person(s) who create the work will acquire moral rights within the work. This means that the default position if an employee creates work protected by copyright, is that they personally will have moral rights. This occurs even if the company is the owner of the economic rights. This means that the employee will potentially have the ability to object to modifications or to demand attribution.
For this reason, many employment contracts include clauses addressing or limiting moral rights. Although employers cannot force employees to waive their moral rights, you can ask employees to do so as part of their employment contract. Before implementing a blanket approach requiring prospective employees to waive their moral rights entirely, you should consider:
- the potential negative impact on employee morale and creativity; and
- what approaches are market standards in your industry.
In any case, you should maintain clear documentation to ensure there is an accessible record as to who owns what, and what moral rights your employees do or do not have.
Right to Attribution
The right to attribution is the right to be identified as the creator of a particular original work. To have this right, you must make a positive action and say that you would like this identification for these purposes.
For example, if you wrote a book under contract to a publisher, you must ensure that you include a clause in the contract that you wish to assert your right to be recognised as the book’s writer.
Right to Object to False Attribution
Similarly, you have the right to object if somebody names you the creator of something you did not produce. This can be a difficult concept to follow in the context of copyright law since if you did not create something, you would not have a copyright in it unless you acquired that copyright from the original copyright owner.
An excellent example of how this right would be exercised is when a famous artist discovers somebody has forged one of their artworks. If they found that the forger was trying to sell the forgery, they would have a legal claim against them under this right to object to false attribution.
LegalVision’s Trade Mark Essentials Guide provides valuable information for any business looking to register or enforce a trade mark.
Right to Object to Derogatory Treatment
The right to object to derogatory treatment (right of integrity) would arise in a situation where somebody has manipulated your work so that it distorts or mutilates it in some way, or that the manipulation negatively affects your honour or reputation. This test is subjective, so the originator of the work needs to demonstrate damage to their reputation as a creator. Essentially, it protects a creator’s artistic integrity.
Right to Privacy
Suppose you commission a photographer, videographer or filmmaker to make a film or take photographs for a private purpose. In that case, you also have the right to stop the filmmaker or photographer from making their photos or film publicly available.
For example, if you hire a photographer to take photographs at a private party, you can prevent that photographer from using those pictures on their website.
Key Takeaways
Moral rights are fundamental rights that ensure you can be recognised as the creator of a particular piece of work and protect your integrity as a writer or artist. If you sell or assign your exclusive right to use a specific piece of work you have created, you still retain your moral rights, and you cannot sell or otherwise transfer these to another person. You can, however, waive these rights, should you wish to.
If you need help asserting your moral rights or understanding your intellectual property rights, our experienced intellectual property lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Since moral rights in creative works are intrinsically related to their creator, you cannot sell or transfer them to anyone else. You can waive your moral rights, however.
This depends on whether you asserted your right to be named the author of the book in question. This right is not automatic, and you have to make a positive action to be named as the author of that book, for example, making sure there is a specific clause in your contract with the buyer that asserts your right to be identified as the author of that book.
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