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No. 54Legal & Compliance
Also called right of integrity, right of attribution, droit moral, author's moral rights
Your right to be credited as the creator of your work and to object to distorted or mutilated uses.
Watch closely
Moral rights waivers in US contracts can permanently remove your ability to object to distorted uses of your work.
Moral rights are personal rights distinct from copyright, they include the right of attribution (to be credited as the creator) and the right of integrity (to object to modifications that harm your reputation). They are strong in most European jurisdictions and weaker in the US, where they can be waived by contract.
Without moral rights protections, your recordings can be edited, remixed, or used in offensive contexts without you being credited or being able to object. US contracts routinely include moral rights waivers, artists sign away these protections without understanding they exist.
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.