From the moment an author or artist creates a work he has various rights in it under traditional property law and intellectual-property law. The author typically owns the copyright in the work and, as a result, can preclude others from, among other things copying, publicly displaying or publicly performing the work. Moreover, the author typically owns the chattel that embodies the work, such as the physical sculpture, painting, manuscript, videotape or audiotape. Under property law, he can prevent others from using or altering the work while it belongs to him. Once the work is sold, however, the author's right to control the work is diminished if not lost.
Moral rights permit the author of a work to protect it even after the work has been sold to another.
The right of attribution gives the author the right to force any possessor of a work created by the author to attribute the work to him. The right of integrity gives the author the right to prevent others from defacing or mutilating his work. The right of divulgation gives the author the right to decide when a work of art is completed and whether it should be published. Finally, the rights of withdrawal and modification give the author the right to remove his work from the public or to modify it upon payment of indemnity to the owner of the work. As they originated and developed in Europe, particularly in France, moral rights were considered to be a component of the author's right of personality.