Moral Rights

Artists are always concerned that their works be attributed to them and that their works not be distorted or mutilated. Whereas continental Europe has recognized these rights for years, the United States has been slower to protect such rights of authors, generally called moral rights because they are independent of authors' economic rights in their works. The right to claim authorship of a work is known as the right of attribution, and the right to ensure that one's work is not mutilated is known as the right of integrity. These moral rights survive transfer of an author's work so that even after the author has sold his or her work, the work cannot be destroyed or mutilated.

In 1990, with the passage of the Visual Artists Rights Act, the United States specifically recognized certain moral rights of copyright owners. Moral rights in the United States are more limited than in Europe, primarily because the rights extend only to works of visual art such as sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints that are produced in limited editions of 200 or fewer signed copies. Thus, if an artist authorized 500 prints of a work, there are no moral rights in the work. Moral rights do not extend to works such as posters and diagrams, generally because these works are not considered works of fine art.

An author's right of attribution means that he or she has the right to claim authorship of the work or to prevent the use of his or her name on a work he or she did not create and on a work that has been mutilated or modified such that having the author's name attached to the work would compromise the author's reputation. An author's right of integrity means that the author has the right to ensure that a work is not intentionally distorted, mutilated, or so modified that it would be prejudicial to his or her honor or reputation. Modifications and fading that occur as the result of the passage of time are permissible. Moral rights endure for the life of the author and cannot be transferred to another. However, moral rights may be waived by an author if the author expressly agrees to such in writing.

There are special rules for works of visual arts incorporated in buildings. For example, if the owner of a building wants to remove a mosaic from the building and removal is possible without destruction, the owner is required to give the author notice so he or she has the opportunity to remove it.