What are moral rights?

Moral rights, which are also known as “droit moral,” refer to personal rights in a work (as opposed to the other rights that come with having a copyright, which are economic rights). In 1990, the United States Congress enacted the Visual Artists Rights Act, which amended the Copyright Act to include limited moral rights with regard to works of visual art created on or after June 1, 1991. Specifically, this act established two rights in such works of visual art - the right of attribution and the right of integrity.

Moral rights are retained by an author even if all of the other rights granted by the Copyright Act are assigned to another. In fact, moral rights cannot be assigned to anyone else by the author.