MORAL RIGHTS AND ITS ASPECTS VIS A VIS INDIAN COPYRIGHT REGIME

Srishti Shrivastava
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Law
Kalinga University.
The Internet grants limitless access to people everywhere, making technology nearly impossible to resist. In a world where digital transformation places creative works permanently in the public domain, what role does ownership play? When individuals can easily reproduce and share content from their own homes, how effective is copyright in restricting use? Digital technology has sparked a battle over rights—a fight for control. However, efforts to regain control in the digital realm obscure a deeper issue. The effects on intangible creations—such as creative expression, knowledge, culture, folklore, oral traditions, and myths—are profound. Few aspects of our collective or individual intellectual life remain unaffected. The idea of moral rights addresses the evolving nature of knowledge. These rights, first introduced in the 19th century by a French judge to resolve challenges faced by authors and artists during a period of growing mass publication, were later extensively analyzed by German legal theorists. They became a cornerstone of legal systems across Continental Europe. The English phrase “moral rights” is a somewhat imperfect and ambiguous translation of the French term droit moral
Moral rights stem from the notion that an author has a personal connection to their work. This unique bond means the author’s interest goes beyond mere financial gain. These rights legally acknowledge the special relationship between creators and their works. While interpretations of moral rights vary across countries, reflecting cultural differences, two fundamental rights are widely recognized. These are the right to be credited for one’s work, often called the right of “attribution,” and the right to safeguard the work from distortion or harm, known as the right of “integrity.” Since 1928, these rights have been enshrined in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the leading international copyright agreement. The United States and Russia were among the last major nations to join this convention, doing so in 1989 and 1995 respectively, and today nearly all countries are obligated to uphold moral right.
Indian Copyright Act through its Section 57 provides for a special right to the author/owner of the work. The present form provides for two types of Rights apart from the economic rights that is guaranteed by other section that is: 1) Right to claim authorship over the work and 2) Right to object to mutilation and destruction of the work if its prejudicial to the authors honor or reputation. The above section has been amended twice actually, the first in year 1994, the primary objective of this amendment was to bring it in conformity with Bern convention, it added that author can claim damaged for distortion of the done before the term of copyright expires, if such distortion was prejudicial to his honour or reputation, so the integrity rights had been extended only up till the copyright subsists in a work. Also, the provision regarding exclusion of the right of the computer adaptation work was added.
The year 2012, saw some profound changes in the Indian copyright act including the Moral rights related provision, like removal of the words “which is done before the expiration of the term of copyright” from section 57(1)(b), also removal of the words “other than the right to claim authorship of the work” form section 57 clause 2 , thus extending the right to claim authorship to the legal representatives. Another such addition was the extension of Moral Rights to the Performers by insertion of section 38B. The above mentioned amendment is in line with article 5 of the WPPT which provides for such right. The above case study that has been mentioned through its decision simply reiterated the principle that has been laid down in the statute that the moral right to claim the authorship of the work can be exercised by him even after assignment of the copyright in the work.