Elizabeth Adeney

A matter of respect: the moral rights of the entertainer

This paper considers the moral rights of certain entertainers – their rights to identification and to a respectful treatment of their achievements. National statutes differ widely in the level and type of protection that they afford to the individual creator or performer. The international nature of the entertainment industry means that entertainers’ activities, and their litigation, are likely to cross borders and thus invoke the operation of different national statutes. This paper takes a comparative approach to the legal protections that are available, referring to UK and Australian law, the laws of France and Germany, and of several other countries. It highlights key differences between these laws and shows, through examination of recent cases, the developing jurisprudence in this area.

Speculations on the Australian Right of ‘Integrity of Performership’: More Questions than Answers?

The moral rights of performers are one of the most recent additions to the Australian Copyright Act. In their drafting they bear great similarity to the moral rights of authors, protected by the Act for a decade now. Nevertheless, these performers’ rights raise an array of issues that were not raised by the authors’ rights provisions. This article considers the right of integrity of performership with particular attention to the nature of performership under the Act, to the ways in which performance can be ‘altered’ so as to infringe the right, and to the duration and exercise of the integrity right. While answers can be found to some of the questions begged by the provisions, others remain more intractable.

Moral Rights in Canada: An Historical and Comparative View

When moral rights were introduced into the Berne Convention in 1928, Canadian legislators accepted that Canadian law was not compliant with the new Convention text and immediately set about remedying this deficiency. This chapter asks why legislators in Canada were so receptive in 1928 to the view that moral rights needed further protection under their domestic law. On what basis were they building? The chapter goes on to discuss the development of moral rights legislation and jurisprudence in Canada. It makes comparisons between these rights and those enjoyed by authors in other countries, particularly the UK and Australia. The elements of the current Canadian rights are considered – the right of integrity, the right of attribution and the right of anonymity. Special features of Canada’s regime of protection are commented upon – the express right of anonymity, the absence of express defences, the liberal approach to waiver, and the deeming of prejudice to certain authors, among other things.