Moral rights protect the intellectual interests of authors in their works and are closely linked to the author’s person. For this reason, authors cannot waive their moral rights or transfer them as a whole to other people. They can only be restricted by contractual agreements. See the chapter How can I exploit my works commercially?

In addition to moral rights, the Copyright Act also contains specific personality rights that protect the personality and dignity of other people. These include, for example, the protection of correspondence, and the right to one's own image.

Example: You are a photographer and have taken a photo of a well-known politician. You have uploaded the photo to your website with the permission of the person photographed. A newspaper downloads the photo, writes a defamatory, untrue article about the politician, adds the photo, and posts the article including the photo online. As the author, you can defend yourself against the unconsented use of your photo. The person depicted can defend themselves against the fact that their image was published in connection with an untrue text that impairs their professional advancement and damages their reputation.

Utilisation of copyright and the right to attribution

Authors have the right to claim the copyright to their works of art. This means the following for you:

  • You may protect and exploit your work of art in accordance with all the rights to which you are entitled, i.e. "be the author";
  • The right to claim your copyright is particularly important if other people falsely claim to be the author of your work and want to use it as if it were theirs;
  • Authors can seek an injunction against such people. See the chapter on legal protection;
  • You have the right to identify yourself as the author (right to attribution, credit). You can decide whether and how your works are to be labelled. If you wish to remain anonymous or work under a pseudonym, you can also prohibit the identification of your authorship.

Prohibition against modification (protection against distortion)

No one may make changes to an author’s work without their permission. Some examples of such changes include:

  • Cuts (e.g. of plays, pieces of music, films);
  • Cutting away parts of a work of art (e.g. a drawing, an oil painting);
  • Changing the title of a work of art;
  • Changing the author’s name;
  • Making additions.

Authors can also defend themselves against a change in the context of use of their works if this adversely affects their interests. This is the case, for example, if works of art are used in political or commercial advertising without prior consent.

Example: A politician has one of your pop songs played at an election campaign event. You have not given your consent and can thus seek a prohibitory injunction. 

If someone makes changes to your protected artwork without your permission or uses your artwork for political or commercial advertising, you can legally defend yourself against this. See the chapter How can I take action against infringements of my copyrights? As an author, you can always defend yourself against serious changes to your works (distortions). 

You can also contractually grant others permission to modify your artwork as an author.

Example: You have written a play. A theatre wants to show your play, leaving one act out. You agree to this. In your contractual agreement (permission to use the work), you grant the theatre the right to show your play and to change it to this extent.

Right of access

If you have sold your artwork, you generally no longer have access to it. You cannot demand that the new owners hand the artwork over to you. 

However, owners must grant you access to your artwork if this is the only way for you to make use of your reproduction rights (see the chapter on reproduction rights).

Example: You have cast a bronze sculpture and sold it. The plaster mould you used to cast the sculpture no longer exists. However, you would like to cast another sculpture. In order for you to make a mould of the bronze sculpture, the new owners must grant you access to it. 

However, owners are not obliged to preserve your artwork. Therefore, if they don't store it properly and it gets damaged, you can't do anything about it. 

Enforcement restrictions

When a person loses a court case, they are forced by the court to take action, for example to pay a sum of money. If the person does not voluntarily take the action prescribed by the court, it can take coercive measures to ensure that the claim—e.g. the monetary claim—is met. This is called “Exekution” (enforcement) in Austria. The court then "enforces" and seizes this person’s monetary assets. For example, the court can seize this person’s salary; the employer no longer pays the salary to the person liable, but to the "winner" of the legal dispute. 

Copyrights are excluded from enforcement. Courts may not seize them. Your moral and exploitation rights may not be taken away from you. However, if you owe money to someone as an author, the court can seize your royalty claims from a collecting society or a user. 

Info: Royalties are the remuneration paid to authors for the use of their copyrighted works. A royalty claim is the author's right to payment of royalties. 

Example: You are an author and are in arrears with your bank loan. The bank wants to seize the outstanding amount. Although the bank can seize your royalty claims, it cannot seize your exploitation rights to your artwork. This means that the bank cannot make independent decisions in your place on the exploitation of your works of art. This right is excluded from enforcement.

Attention: If you have contractually transferred a right of exploitation to someone else, that person may very well enforce your right of exploitation. In this case, you do not owe money, but the granting of the exploitation right.