What Are Moral Rights In Copyright Law?

We have previously covered the basics of copyright law among other articles in this copyright series. But did you know that another set of rights exists in copyright works is the concept of moral rights?

Moral rights vs copyright

Copyright is an economic right, allowing or preventing access or exploitation of the relevant work for profit. On the other hand, moral rights are non-economic rights that protect individual authors' and creators' personal interests. Particularly, these rights protect their reputations. They apply only to copyright works rather than any form of design right for example.

Moral rights specifically apply to literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works and films. This includes books, professional reports and articles, an architect's drawings, photographs, illustrations, adverts etc.