This is the second part of a series looking at the protections UK law provides to musicians. The first part dealt with copyright. This article looks at moral rights – which provide the artist with a right to be identified as the creator of material such as a song, and to object to any distortion or false or misleading portrayal of their material.
Moral rights can be extremely useful. For example, in 1993 George Michael was granted a pre-trial injunction by the Court of Appeal preventing the release of a medley of various Wham! songs called the ‘Bad Boys Megamix’. The Court found that the release of the ‘Bad Boys megamix’ would be in breach of Michael’s moral rights as it was capable of being distortion or mutilation of his work amounting to derogatory treatment.
- The right to be identified as the author of a copyright work. This is known as the “right of paternity”.
- The right to object to derogatory treatment of a copyright work. This is known as the “right of integrity” and an example is provided by the George Michael case above.
- The right not to suffer false attribution of a copyright work. This is the right not to have a work falsely attributed to you. For example, in the ‘Blaney’s Blarney’ Twitter case the Court ordered an anonymous Twitter user to reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at the site ‘Blaney’s Blarney’.
- The right to privacy for films and photographs that you have commissioned.
How long do moral rights last?
The rights of paternity, integrity and privacy last for the normal term of copyright, which is the life of the author plus 70 years. The right to prevent false attribution is limited to 20 years after the death of the author.
Yes. Moral rights do not apply in all circumstances. For example, where a work is created by you as an employee your employer will generally own the copyright to that work. In this scenario you will only benefit from limited moral rights. This may be relevant to an artist who has, for example, signed a band agreement where the artist provides services to the band’s company or partnership as an employee.
Also, the right of paternity has to be ‘asserted’. This means that the artist has to ‘stake a claim’ to their moral right. For an artist this is usually achieved by specifying wording such as:
The author has asserted his/her moral right in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The simplest way to assert a right of paternity is to ensure that it is clearly set out in any agreement in which you assign your copyright to any music or lyrics to a third party, e.g. a publisher. In respect of jointly written works, each artist must independently assert their right of paternity.
In addition, moral rights cannot be assigned to a third party, e.g. to your publisher. However, moral rights can be waived by the artist, and this fact is often seized upon by media businesses. For example, in film-making a film company will always want the security of moral rights waivers from the composer of any music used in a film. The rationale for seeking a waiver is that any organisation who acquires rights to exploit any type of copyright work should not be inconvenienced by having to respect the artist’s moral rights! However, with an large number of deals between parties of increasingly equal bargaining positions the time has never been better for an artist to seek to retain their moral rights.
What is the situation overseas?
Moral rights in the United Kingdom are far more limited than in the rest of Europe. For example, in France, moral rights (or droit moral) cannot be waived. Other countries benefit from additional moral rights, such as the right to correct work, object to alteration or destruction and withdraw from circulation. In the United States there is no formal concept of moral rights. Bear these differences in mind and take specific legal advice if you are ever working overseas! For example in the U.S. you will need to include contractual protections equivalent to moral rights in your contracts with publishers and record companies.
Wrapping up
In summary, moral rights are extremely valuable and you should endeavour to retain them wherever possible. Whilst it is still the norm for these rights to be waived, it is becoming increasingly possible to negotiate a retention of your moral rights in music business contracts. If you must waive your moral rights against lawful users (e.g. your publisher) then try to retain your rights against unlawful users.
Please feel welcome to leave comments and feedback on the above post. I am also happy to answer general copyright and moral rights questions submitted as comments through this page. If you would like to discuss any specific requirements then please feel welcome to call me, Mark Roberts, on 0161 212 1718.
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does the moral rights of musicians require radio or TV stations to, as a matter of obligation, name them as the maker or composer of any of their tracks they play on air?
Thanks for your question!
The first thing to note is that to rely on the paternity right this right has to be ‘asserted’. I deal with how you go about formally asserting your right of paternity in the article.
Secondly, do remember that there are no moral rights in sound recordings – only in the original composition (that is, music and lyrics), any original artwork and any performance.
So, provided your moral rights have been asserted, you do have the right to be identified as the composer of your music, the creator of your lyrics, the originator of your artwork and the performer of your works.
However, for radio and television, you may not receive recognition as a performer because the law provides that you don’t have to be identified where “it is not reasonably practicable” to do so (see section 205E Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988). This appears to remove any obligation on a radio or television station to identify any performer(s) after receiving air-play – although there is as yet no specific case law on this point.
A further exception applies when your performance was used for reporting news or for advertising purposes.
In relation to any films shown on television, the rolling credits will of course usually identify and credit the original author of rights in music included within the film. However, this is usually done as a courtesy, and there is generally no obligation for film companies to do so as any film production company will almost certainly have required an express waiver of any moral rights before including your music in their film.