The US Copyright Office Wants to Hear Your Thoughts on ‘Moral Rights’

The US Copyright Office is currently doing a study on the “Moral Rights of Attribution and Integrity.” Want to play a part in the development of US copyright law moving forward? You can weigh in and share your views on the matter.

“The term ‘moral rights’ is taken from the French phrase droit moral and generally refers to certain noneconomic rights that are considered personal to an author,” the copyright office writes. “Chief among these rights are the right of an author to be credited as the author of his or her work (the right of attribution) and the right to prevent prejudicial distortions of the work (the right of integrity). These rights have a long history in international copyright law.”

The government wants to know how current US copyright law is working with regards to these moral rights, and it’s trying to figure out whether additional productions is needed.

Here’s the notice of inquiry with more information and questions you can respond to:

Example questions, found at the bottom of the notice, include:

“Should additional moral rights protection be considered? If so, what specific changes should be considered by Congress?”

“Would stronger protections for either the right of attribution or the right of integrity implicate the First Amendment? If so, how should they be reconciled?”

“How does, or could, technology be used to address, facilitate, or resolve challenges and problems faced by authors who want to protect the attribution and integrity of their works?”

If you’d like to share your thoughts with the copyright office, you’ll need to do so before March 30th, 2017. You can submit your comments through this page.

(via US Copyright Office via PDNPulse)