Moral Rights and Mortal Rights in Canada

Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (Oxford), Vol. 4, No. 4, 2009

6 Pages Posted: 6 Sep 2009 Last revised: 30 Jul 2010

Date Written: September 3, 2009

Abstract

The Continental notion of moral rights dominates the academic literature and even legal practice. Under this model, moral rights are seen as personal rights which are innate to authors. Canada’s copyright laws are said to be entirely ‘a creature of statute’, and therefore one need only look to the Copyright Act to locate the boundaries of Canadian copyright law. The Canadian Copyright Act expressly deems corporate owners of certain photographic works to be ‘authors’ of that work. And since there is nothing within the Act which requires authors to be natural persons, it appears as though corporations can hold moral rights (with respect to photographic works) under Canadian copyright law. The provisions in the Copyright Act (and even the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works) also permit corporate ownership of moral rights (in general) upon the death of ‘flesh and blood’ authors, thereby further defeating the notion that moral rights were never intended to be held or enforced by corporate entities.

Keywords: moral rights, canada, copyright, statute, theberge, berne

Suggested Citation

Crowne, Emir, Moral Rights and Mortal Rights in Canada (September 3, 2009). Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (Oxford), Vol. 4, No. 4, 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1467981

Emir Crowne (Contact Author)

New City Chambers

13 Fitzgerald Lane
Port-Of-Spain
Trinidad and Tobago

HOME PAGE: http://newcitychambers.com/

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