MORAL RIGHTS CONSENT

USER GUIDE

  1. Why is a Moral Rights Consent form required?

Australian copyright law recognizes three types of moral rights:

  • the right of attribution - to be acknowledged as the creator(s) of a work;
  • the right not to have authorship falsely attributed - people are not to be identified as an author(s) of a work that they did not create; and
  • the right of integrity - work cannot be treated in a derogatory fashion, that would damage the author(s) honour or reputation.

These rights are personal, non-economic rights. This means that they can only belong to the author and can’t be traded, sold or bequeathed in a will, nor can they be used to directly confer a financial return to the author(s).

The University often enters into contractual relationships with third parties, which require staff (and sometimes students) to produce copyright works for the benefit of these third parties (ie. research grants and CCR work). The third parties will often request that they be able to amend, alter and adapt the completed copyright works for various purposes. However, if the third party does this, without obtaining a moral rights consent from each author, the third party will be in breach of the Copyright Act 1968 and will have infringed the author’s moral rights.

Therefore, third parties will request that the University obtain a consent from each author of copyright works to allow the third party to undertake specified acts or omissionsin relation to the completed copyright work, so as to avoid such infringement.

It is important to understand that you are under no legal obligation to provide such consent and any consent you give must be given without duress or undue influence. Nevertheless, if you are involved in a project for which the University has contractual obligations to obtain such consents, and you are not prepared to give such consent, the University may be unable to execute the agreement with the third party and receive the funding/income.

  1. How do I complete the consent?

A separate form should be completed by each author involved in the specific project who is or is likely to create copyright in the completed work.

To complete the consent form:

  1. Insert your full name and residential address, where indicated;
  2. Section 1 – You will need to insert a description of the completed copyright works. This will depend upon the services being provided by the author and the University. The following are some examples:
  3. Interim and Final Reports submitted for the Project entitled “###”;
  4. The film entitled “##”;
  5. A Film produced/directed by the Author relating to ## research/project;
  6. Research papers arising from the project entitled “##”;
  7. All project material created pursuant to the ## Agreement dated ##.
  8. Section 2 – You will need to insert the specified acts and omissions which you allow to be done. The third party may have expressly identified the specific acts/omission for which they wish permission to undertake – if so these should be inserted into this field. The following are some examples (you may need to include all or only some of these examples depending upon the third parties requirements):
  9. Using, reproducing, adapting or exploiting all or any part of the Work, with or without attribution of authorship;
  10. Supplementing the Work with any other material;
  11. Using, reproducing, adapting or exploiting all or any part of the Work in a different context to that originally envisaged;
  12. Not attributing Me as an author of the Work;
  13. Not attributing Me as an author of the Work only in small published excerpts of the Work where it is impractical to do so.

In the final sentence of Section 2 of the consent form there are some words in square brackets “[but does not include false attribution]”. The University would strongly recommend including the words in these square brackets. Nevertheless, these rights are personal and you are free to consent to any acts/omissions being done to your works.

  1. Execution Area – You will need to insert your full name, where indicated.
  2. Signing – Once the form is complete, print out two copies, sign each copy. One original will be yours to keep. Send the other original to the specific business unit within the University which has requested the form or provide to your publisher or third party (if the consent is for private practice purposes).

The University will keep all signed Moral Rights Consents for research grants and CCR work it receives as vital records within CARMS. The University will, upon request, only provide copies of such signed consents to third parties entitled to a copy pursuant to the relevant contract. Therefore, the consent will be given (including the rights arising from the consent) to any contractual party that has a licence or owns the copyright including any sub-licensees, subcontractors and any subsequent licensees or owners of the copyright.

If you have any queries about moral rights or this consent, please contact Legal Services Unit, the University’s Copyright Officer, Office for Research or Griffith Enterprise (whichever is relevant to your project).

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