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Crown Copyright & Licensing

About Copyright

Moral rights

There is a provision in the Copyright Act (R.S. C., Chapter C-42, Section 14) [http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42/index.html], which sets out the “moral rights” of an author/creator. Moral rights are personal to an author/creator regardless of who owns copyright. Unless an author/creator waives his moral rights, these rights cannot be assigned.

Moral rights exist for the same period of time as the copyright in a work.

An author/creator may exercise the following moral rights as provided for in the Copyright Act:

Right of Paternity: This right includes the right to claim authorship, the right to remain anonymous, or the right to use a pseudonym or pen name.

Right of Integrity: In the case of a work being adapted, modified or translated, the author/creator's right of integrity must be respected. As stipulated in the Copyright Act, an author/creator's right to the integrity of his work is violated if the work is a distortion, mutilation or modification of the work that is prejudicial to the honor or reputation of the author/creator.

Part of the Right of Association is an author’s/creator’s Right of Association. This means that an author/creator has the right to prevent anyone from using his work in association with a product, service, cause, or institution.