Authors Moral Rights in Digital Environment

If any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is generated by computer then the person who causes the work to be created is the author of that work and if he owns the copyright of his work then he got some rights by which he can protect his work from being infringe. In those rights moral rights of an author is very important right. Moral rights are personal rights which are granted to author who owns the copyright...


The categories of moral rights of author are:
  1. The right of creation: This right facilitates the author to produce or demolish his own work.
  2. The right of attribution of authorship: This right facilitates the author to be identified on his own work when it is communicate to public. The acknowledgement of the author is important if someone uses the work of others.
  3. The right of integrity: This right facilitates the author to prevent his work from being altered or damage which affect the reputation of author or which destroying his original work.
In BILETA conference paper, Moral rights in the Digital Environment: “Authors” absence from Authors’ rights debate, Smita Kheria says that- However the digital environment not only brought opportunities for authors, but also came with threats to their personality interests. Moral rights, protecting such interests were faced in the digital environment with practical and conceptual challenges like concerns over definition and scope of such rights and wider questions going to the heart of moral rights doctrine being the bond between author and work in the digital environment.

CAN MORAL RIGHTS BE SOLD?
There is difference between moral rights and copyright, it is completely separate thing from copyright. Even if the copyright is sold or passed to other person the moral rights of author are still remains with him because it cannot be sold, waived or transferred to any other person.

 Authors Special Right:

The authors special rights are define under section 57 of copyright Act, 1957 that is –
1.      Independently of the author's copyright and even after the assignment either wholly or partially of the said copyright, the author of a work shall have the right-
a)      To claim authorship of the work; and
b)    To restrain or claim damages in respect of any distortion, mutilation, modification or other act in relation to the said work which is done before the expiration of the term of copyright if such distortion, mutilation, modification or other act would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation.
2.      The right conferred upon an author of a work by sub-section (1), other than the right to claim authorship of the work, may be exercised by the legal representatives of the author.

HOW TO DEAL WITH MORAL RIGHTS OF AUTHOR:

To avoid the infringement of moral rights of author we have to follow these steps –
  • We have to always attribute the name of author and title of his work where it is reasonable and where his work or film is reproduced and communicated to public.
  • In case of musical or dramatic work attribute the name of author where the work is performed. This will protect his work from been infringed.
  • Do not alter, edit and adapt the film or work of author unless it is reasonable in circumstances.
  • Always take the author’s consent in written before doing such act which would infringe the moral rights of author.


CONCLUSION:

The issue of protecting the moral rights of the authors in digital environment has been the topic of discussion from a long time. As the technology is developing and changing, new methods to infringe the copyrighted materials are also developed. People use the work or film of author and infringe his moral rights. Once the work of author is made available online it is difficult to control its accessibility. We should ourselves determine that whether we want to respect the work developed by the author by his hard work or abusing it by accessing the infringed work.

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