Copyright Protection - Managing Creator Rights

Economic rights affect your ability to make money off of your work. According to the Copyright Act section 106 these rights include:

1. Right to reproduce work 
2.  Right to prepare derivative works based off of the original
3. Right to distribute copies of the work to public by sale transfer ownership, rental, lease, or lending
4. Right to display the work publicly

If a work is digital (either digitized or it was born digital) a second set of rights are available called “digital rights” or “e-rights”:

1. Right of reproduction
2. Right of display
3. Right of making a work available-posting the work on a blog or social media
4. Right of telecommunication to the public-sharing the work on the internet

-U.S. Copyright Essentials, Lesley Harris www.copyrightlaws.com

While only available to Visual Artists in the United States, moral rights are available to all creators in other parts of the world, and it is good to be familiar with them:

A visual art, as defined by Section 110 of the Copyright Act:

Painting, drawing, print, or sculpture, existing in a single copy, in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer signed and consecutively numbered by author. In the case of a sculpture, in multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by creator. A still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only, existing in a single copy signed by author in limit of 200.

Moral Rights include: 

1. Right of Paternity- the right of the creator to sign their name to their work, use a pseudonym, or remain anonymous
2. Right of Integrity-where creators can object to changes to their work that harms the reputation of the creator and keeps the work from being wrongfully used
3. Right of Disclosure-deciding whether and when to make work public
4. Right of Withdrawal-ability to decide whether to withdraw work from public
5. Right Against Excessive Criticism
6. Droit de Suite-the right collect a fee of work is resold

The purpose of this guide is to provide resources and information for resolving copyright questions. This research guide does not supply legal advice nor is it intended to replace the advice of legal counsel.