© is divided into 2 broad categories
1. Moral rights
2. Economic or material rights
Morals rights or authors rights are many times read in opposition to copyright and the economic rights are mainly focused on owner rather than author. There are at least four examples of akhlak rights. in Kenya we emphasize on two:
1. The right to paternity (right to be named as the person who has given rise to an IP product; one has a right to be named and a negative right not to be named. The author also has the right to claim authorship and ownership (when not credit) Right of Attribution or acknowledgment.
2. The author has the right to object to distortion , mutilation or other modification , as well as any derogatory or disparaging reference to the work. This right may be claimed where the work has been adversely reviewed. Moral rights here relate very closely to defamation.
RIGHT TO INTEGRITY & FREEDOM FROM FALSE ATTRIBUTION. Right to integrity. No one has right to modify other people’s creation without their permission. Psalm 23 – a Poet from Uganda called Timothy Wangusa wrote a poem called Psalm 23 part 2 he satirised Psalms , one has a right to satirise textual satire like Wangusa writing a poem to satirise a written text. Social satire is like Imbuga writing Betrayal in the City to satirise society.
The first person to own copyright is the publisher until the author is identified.
Moral rights live and die with the author. These are covered under S. 32(1) of the Copyright Act , 2001.
Duration of anonymous works is 50 years since there is no author , for audiovisual work it is 50 since creation or being published. After the end of the year in which the author dies.
Right of Integrity – this is protection against disparagement alternation of mutilation.
Imitative Innovation – people who mutilate other people’s songs and come up with their song e.g. Mercy Myra borrowing a little here a little there to make a song , or Kajairo totally mutilating a song to come up with his own. The amount of material in terms of quantity and quality matters. An example is Gerry Ford’s Memoirs - Gerry was being asked questions on the Watergate Scandal whether he wanted to forgive Nixon or take him to trial as the Vice President. He decided to forgive Richard Nixon.
The dilemma had been to forgive and be seen as condoning political corruption or trying Nixon and being seen as a callous person. Harper agree with The Time Magazine agrees that they will get the scoop but before the Memoirs hit the streets , Nation steals the book and they publish 300 words from a volume – the issue is do 300 words out of about constitute copyright infringement? This is based on the right to modify , alter or mutilate. The court held that there was infringement as the words were Jerry Fords own words.
Right of integrity or freedom from disparaging is closely related to the law of defamation. Like book reviewers who review the author instead of reviewing the book , the author can sue under akhlak rights section.