Opinion ID: 204752
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A brief history of moral rights

Text: That artists have certain moral rights in their work is a doctrine long recognized in civil-law countries but only recently imported into the United States. Moral rights are generally grouped into two categories: rights of attribution and rights of integrity. Rights of attribution generally include the artist's right to be recognized as the author of his work, to publish anonymously and pseudonymously, to prevent attribution of his name to works he did not create, and to prevent his work from being attributed to other artists. Carter v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc., 71 F.3d 77, 81 (2d Cir.1995) (citing RALPH E. LERNER & JUDITH BRESLER, ART LAW 419-20 (1989)). Rights of integrity include the artist's right to prevent the modification, mutilation, or distortion of his work, and in some cases (if the work is of recognized stature), to prevent its destruction. Id. at 81-82 (citing ART LAW at 420-21). Originating in nineteenth-century France, moral rights le droit moral [2]  are understood as rights inhering in the artist's personality, transcending property and contract rights and existing independently of the artist's economic interest in his work. See 3 MELVILLE B. NIMMER & DAVID NIMMER, NIMMER ON COPYRIGHT § 8D.01[A] (2010); 5 WILLIAM F. PATRY, PATRY ON COPYRIGHT §§ 16:1, 16:3 (2010); John Henry Merryman, The Refrigerator of Bernard Buffet, 27 HASTINGS L.J. 1023, 1023-28 (1976). American copyright law, on the other hand, protects the economic interests of artists; Article I of the Constitution authorizes Congress To Promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. U.S. CONST. art. 1, § 8, cl. 8. Unlike other intellectual-property rights, moral rights are unrelated to the artist's pecuniary interests and are grounded in philosophical ideas about the intrinsic nature and cultural value of art rather than natural-property or utility justifications. [3] See Carter, 71 F.3d at 81 (describing moral rights as rights of a spiritual, non-economic and personal nature [that] . . . spring from a belief that an artist in the process of creation injects his spirit into the work and that the artist's personality, as well as the integrity of the work, should therefore be protected and preserved). VARA introduced a limited version of this European doctrine into American law, but it is not an easy fit. [4] VARA was enacted as a consequence of the United States' accession to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. After many years of resistance, the Senate ratified the treaty in 1988, bringing the United States into the Berne Union effective the following year. See 4 NIMMER § 17.01[C][2] (2010); 5 PATRY §§ 16:1, 16:3. The Berne Convention dates to 1886, when seven European nations (plus Haiti and Tunisia) joined together to extend copyright protection across their borders. See 4 NIMMER § 17.01[B][1] nn. 10 & 17 (2002). During the course of the next century, many other nations joined, and the treaty underwent periodic revisions, most notably for our purposes in 1928 when Article 6bis was added, incorporating the concept of moral rights. See 3 id. § 8D.01[B] (2004); 5 PATRY §§ 16:1, 16:3. Article 6bis provides: (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 honor or reputation. . . . . (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. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, art. 6bis, Sept. 9, 1886, as revised at Paris on July 24, 1971, S. TREATY DOC. NO. 99-27 (1986). When the United States joined the Berne Union in 1989, the concept of moral rights was largely unknown in American law. See Lee v. A.R.T. Co., 125 F.3d 580, 582 (7th Cir.1997) ([I]t was accepted wisdom [before VARA] that the United States did not enforce any claim of moral rights.); see also Weinstein v. Univ. of Ill., 811 F.2d 1091, 1095 n. 3 (7th Cir.1987) (The Continental principle of le droit moral is a doctrine that no American jurisdiction follows as a general matter.); Merryman, The Refrigerator of Bernard Buffet, 27 HASTINGS L.J. at 1035-36 (The moral right of the artist, and in particular that component called the right of integrity of the work of art, simply does not exist in our law.). Article 6bis was a major obstacle to Berne ratification. See Martin v. City of Indianapolis, 192 F.3d 608, 611 (7th Cir.1999) (The treaty's moral-rights concept was controversial in this country and was embraced post-Berne only in a very limited way.); Carter, 71 F.3d at 82-83 (The issue of federal protection of moral rights was a prominent hurdle in the debate over whether the United States should join the Berne Convention. . . .); see also 3 NIMMER § 8D.02[A]-[D] (2004); 5 PATRY §§ 16:1, 16:3; Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, How Fine Art Fares Post VARA, 1 MARQ. INTELL. PROP. L.REV. 1, 1-4 (1997). American unease with European moral-rights doctrinemore particularly, the obligations imposed by Article 6bis persisted beyond Berne ratification. Indeed, Congress initially took the position that domestic law already captured the concept in existing copyright and common-law doctrines and in the statutory law of some states. See Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, Pub.L. No. 100-568, §§ 2(2), (3), 102 Stat. 2853; 3 NIMMER § 8D.02[D][1] (2009); 5 PATRY § 16:3. This was seen as an implausible claim. See 3 NIMMER § 8D.02[D][1] (Th[e] Congressional finding flies in the face of numerous judicial and scholarly pronouncements. . . .); 5 PATRY § 16:3 (The American position that existing federal and state laws satisfied minimum Berne obligations created a web of fictional compliance.). [A] question of international credibility existed, and some Berne co-Unionists . . . expressed doubts regarding the accuracy or sincerity of the U.S. declaration that its law already afforded a degree of moral rights protection equivalent to Berne standards. Jane C. Ginsburg, Copyright in the 101st Congress: Commentary on the Visual Artists Rights Act and the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990, 14 COLUM.-VLA J.L. & ARTS 477, 478-79 (1990). VARA was enacted to fill this perceived gap, but its moral-rights protection is quite a bit narrower than its European counterpart.