Moral Rights of the Author

What is a Copyright?

A copyright can be defined as any Literary, Artistic, Dramatic, Musical works, Cinematographic film
and sound recordings.1 The work should be an original work and it should not be copied. The
supreme court of India upon commenting upon the Doctrine of sweat of brow stated that There
should be some level of minimum creativity in the work.2

What are Moral Rights of an Author?

Moral rights or droit moral has been derived from French law also known as rights of paternity and
integrity. These are personal to the author and are completely independent of his economic rights.
They belong to the individual author. Moral rights are Inalienable and cannot be sold or transferred,
they cannot be assigned, disposed of by operation of law.

Moral rights of an Author have been provided for in Article 6bis of the Berne convention:

Article 6bis

(1) Independently of the author's economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the
author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation
or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be
prejudicial to his honour or reputation.

(2) The rights granted to the author in accordance with the preceding paragraph shall, after his
death, be maintained, at least until the expiry of the economic rights, and shall be exercisable by the
persons or institutions authorized by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed.
However, those countries whose legislation, at the moment of their ratification of or accession to
this Act, does not provide for the protection after the death of the author of all the rights set out in
the preceding paragraph may provide that some of these rights may, after his death, cease to be
maintained.

(3) The means of redress for safeguarding the rights granted by this Article shall be governed by the
legislation of the country where protection is claimed.3

1 Indian Copyright, 1957.

2 Eastern Book Co. v. D.B.Modak (2008) 1 SCC 1
3 Article 6bis, Berne convention.
Indian Perspective

Moral Rights in India have been enunciated in S57 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. It provides
special rights to the author. This provision is based on Article 6bis of Berne Convention.

Moral rights granted by S57 are as follows:-

Paternity Right (To claim Authorship)4

Integrity right (to protect his reputation and honour)5

These rights may be exercised by the legal representatives of the author.6

In, Amar Nath Sehgal vs Union of India and Anr 7- The plaintiff a renowned sculpture artist created
a bronze mural for installation at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi. In 1979 the government removed the
sculpture and dumped in the storeroom. On receiving knowledge Mr. Sehgal made asked the Govt.
authorities to restore the Mural. A Petition in the High Court prayed for recognition and enforcement
of Mr. Sehgals moral rights in the mural.

The issues before the court were whether Mr. Sehgal had moral right over the mural even when the
copyright vested with the UOI and whether his moral right has been infringed.8The court held the
following:

Moral rights of the author are the soul of his works. The author has a right to preserve,
protect and nurture his creations through his moral rights.9

There would therefore be urgent need to interpret Section 57 of the Copyright Act,
1957 in its wider amplitude to include destruction of a work of art, being the extreme
form of mutilation, since by reducing the volume of the authors creative corpus it affects
his reputation prejudicially as being actionable under said section. Further, in relation to
the work of an author, subject to the work attaining the status of a modern national

4 S 57(1)(a) Of Indian Copyright Act, 1957

5 S 57(1)(b) Of Indian Copyright Act, 1957
6 S 57(2) Of Indian Copyright Act, 1957
7 2005 (30) PTC 253 Del
8 Amar Nath Sehgal vs Union of India and Anr.
9 Para 24, Amar Nath Sehgal vs Union of India and Anr.
 treasure, the right would include an action to protect the integrity of the work in relation
to the cultural heritage of the nation.10

In, Manu Bhandari vs Kala Vikas Pictures Pvt. Ltd. And Ors.11 dispute concerning authors moral
right came before the court. Manu Bhandari, the Plaintiff authored the Hindi novel Aap ka Bunty
she then assigned some of her rights. Upon making the movie the ending was changed and made
different from that in the book. Bhandari contended that it was against her integrity and honour.

The scope and width of S57 of the Copyright Act was questioned. The court held that:

The hallmark of any culture is excellence of arts and literature. Quality of creative genius of
artists and authors determine the maturity and vitality of any culture. .Art needs healthy
environment and adequate protection. The protection which law offers is thus not the
protection of the artist or author alone. Enrichment of culture is of vital interest to each
society. Law protects this social interest. Section 57 of the Copyright Act is one such example
of legal protection. Section 57 lifts authors' status beyond the material gains of copyright and
gives it a special status.12

In other words Section 57 confers additional rights on the author of a literary work as
compared to the owner of a general copyright. The special protection of the intellectual
property is emphasised by the fact that the remedies of a restraint order or damages can be
claimed "even after the assignment either wholly or partially of the said copyright".13

Conclusion

Moral rights are Author centric as they consider copyright as a personal right held by the author,
giving credit to him for his creativity and intellectual efforts. The Right of Paternity or integrity
precede right to claim authorship and gives the owner a right to prevent any contortion deeming to be
harmful to his reputation and honour. Judicial interpretation of Moral rights in India is wide and
covers most aspects precedent has shown that the Moral rights of artist are largely upheld.

10 Para 56, Amar Nath Sehgal vs Union of India and Anr.

11 AIR 1987 Delhi 13
12 Para 8, Manu Bhandari vs Kala Vikas Pictures Pvt. Ltd. And Ors.
13 Para 9, Manu Bhandari vs Kala Vikas Pictures Pvt. Ltd. And Ors.