Research On The Transfer Of Moral Rights Of Authors

Traditional copyright theory argues that the works can be seen as an extension of the authors and their personalities and the moral rights can not be separated from the author’s personality, therefore, moral rights are no way to transfer. Copyright Laws in many countries also prohibit to transfer the moral rights. Compared with other countries’ legislation, the provision of the transfer of moral rights is lacking in Copyright Law in China. However, the phenomenon of transfer moral rights is occurred from time to time in the information age.The traditional theory and Copyright Laws can not explain the changeable reality. There exists three different theories in the academic formation to advocate the maintenance or deconstruction of the traditional copyright theory. This article holds the view that the authors and their personalities are not inseparable from their works. When the authors complete their works, the works will be independent from the authors.This article divides the moral rights into initiative rights and defensive rights, the former includes the right of publicity and the right to modify, and the latter covers the right of authorship and the right of protecting integrity. This article also holds the view that the initiative rights can be transferred while the defensive rights is not.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this article contains the following five parts:The first part analyzes the countries’, including the civil law countries and common law countries, legislation in the transferring of moral rights. Compared to most of the countries expressly prohibit the transfer of moral rights legislation, there has no provisions in Copyright Law in China.The second section summarizes all kinds of theories and insights of our academics in the transfer of moral rights. On the transfer of moral rights, some scholars believe that the rights of authorship, the right to modify, right of publicity and the right of protecting integrity are freely transferable, some scholars believe that all the moral rights are not transferable, other scholars believe that only part of the moral rights can be transferred.The third part discusses the nature of moral rights. This part also analyzes the differences between moral rights and personal rights in civil law and argues that the moral rights have the property of the property, which makes some part of the moral rights can be transferred theoretically possible..The fourth part describes the separable extent of the moral rights from authors’ personality. From this perspective, moral rights are divided into two major categories of initiative rights and defensive rights. The article says that the initiative rights can be transferred while the defensive rights is not.The fifth part demonstrates the choice for the transfer of moral rights in Copyright Law in China.The article believes that the recognition of the transferability of the initiative rights not only has the theoretical basis but also has the practical practice.