Study On The Right Of Integrity

It is stipulated in the fourth clause of the10th article in ourcopyright law that the protection of integration right is to protect thework from being distorted or mutilated. Compared with the legislation inother countries, our stipulation about the right of integrity protectionis more blurred. It not only fails to define the concrete meaning ofdistortion and mutilation, but also lacks the necessary limitation on theright of integrity protection. Therefore it is less viable and this iswhy the court is left with much explaining space in the judicial practice.The author notices that, there is a huge variation in terms of the behaviorof breaching integration right protection in real practice. It is rathercommon to see the distinctively opposite conclusion drawn by the courtwhile the cases seem similar. Through summarizing the legislative andjudicial process in foreign countries, together with our real situationthe author hopes to conduct an analysis on the right of integrityprotection. In addition, the author also aims to put forward moreoperative and viable legislative concept.The first section of the paper partially introduces the concretestipulation in laws concerning the right of integrity protection in ourcountry. Since there is difference in history, culture, development and legal concept of various countries therefore there is a distinction oflegislative concept regarding copyright system. There is a tendency ofviewing copyright as the property right and copyright doctrine. Inaddition, the authorship doctrine which deems protecting the right of anauthor as its starting point is also visible. The author believes thaton the issue of protecting the right of integrity there is an obviousdiscrepancy of the two doctrines: in a nation advocating copyrightdoctrine, the author has to provide evidence that the mutilation anddistortion of the work results in the damage of their own reputation whenthey assert that their right of integrity protection has been infringed.The copyright legislation in our country belongs to authorship doctrine.Therefore the starting point should be the utilization of authorshipdoctrine to interpret the right of integrity protection. Under thelegislative concept of authorship doctrine, the right of integrityprotection is seen as an important element with its significant place andfunction in the spiritual right enjoyed by the authors.The second section of the paper mainly revolves around the analysisof integration right protection based on the legislative concept ofauthorship doctrine. Through discussion, the author initially makes clearthe definition of “distortion and mutilation”. In the meantime, theauthor also holds the view that the behavior of breaching the right ofintegrity protection not only includes the distortion and mutilation ofthe work itself but also includes the situation where there is noalteration made on the work but it has been inappropriately used and thedistortion and mutilation imposed on the work when deducing the work. Onthe other hand, the distorted and mutilated work will cause interpretationof the public. The last one is that the breaching of the right of integrityprotection is not based on the author reputation tarnishing. Apart fromthat, the author also conducts analysis of the particular behavior of damaging works through which it is concluded that the damage imposed onthe work should not be deemed as the breaching of the right of integrityprotection. In the end, the author unfolds a holistic comparison andanalysis of the amendment right and the right of integration protectionstipulated in the current copyright law.The third section of the paper puts forward recommendation concerningthe limitation of integration right protection. The author thinks thatthe law is not capable of covering all the aspects of judicial practices.Therefore, when encountering the situation where there is no detailedstipulation of laws, it is viable to consult the balance of interestsconcept adopted in German copyright law and the right of authorship shouldbe appropriately restricted so that coordination can be laid out betweenthe conflicting parties and social interests. Furthermore, the right ofintegrity protection should also be limited by constitution, legislationas well as public interest. Finally, the author proposed some suggestionsin terms of the limitation need to be imposed on our right of integrityprotection.