Law Commons^™

Copyright In The 101st Congress: Commentary On The Visual Artists Rights Act And The Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act Of 1990, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In the Visual Artists Rights Act, Congress has for the first time included moral rights within the U.S. copyright statute. Well-known in continental European copyright doctrine, and secured by the Berne Convention, moral rights afford protection for the author's personal, non-economic interests in receiving attribution for her work, and in preserving the work in the form in which it was created, even after its sale or licensing. These rights of attribution (sometimes infelicitously labeled the "right of paternity") and of integrity are conceptually distinct from the economic rights of exploitation set forth in section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act. …