Page:The librarian's copyright companion, by James S. Heller, Paul Hellyer, Benjamin J. Keele, 2012.djvu/47

Chapter Two. Restrictions on Use services that allow users to select the songs they want to hear. It has no application to libraries' traditional practice of lending sound recordings. The issue of sound recordings in electronic reserves will be addressed in Chapter Eight.

Many countries recognize a category of authors' rights known as "moral rights", which the United States recognizes only in a very limited way. Moral rights, in their fullest sense, include the attribution right (i.e., the right to be known (or not known) as the author of a work), the integrity right (which restricts alterations to a work), and the right to begin or cease distribution of a work. These rights are separate from the economic ownership of a work, and in some countries they cannot be waived or transferred by the author. For example, in France, an author could sign away all rights to his novel, but still prevent anyone from issuing an abridged version.

The Berne Convention, which we introduced in Chapter One, requires its members to recognize the attribution and integrity rights. But some signatories to the Convention, particularly the United States, have never fully complied with these requirements. Long before joining Berne, the United States offered authors some protection similar to the attribution and integrity rights, but not under the traditional "moral rights" framework. Instead, the law of unfair competition, defamation, or invasion of privacy can sometimes be used in the United States to prevent distortions of authorship or damaging alterations to a work, even in situations where the author has already sold all economic rights. Although this limited protection probably does not meet the requirements of the Berne Convention, the United States is unlikely to adopt full-fledged moral rights any time soon. So in contrast to France, in the United States, an author can sell all rights to a novel, including the right to approve alterations.