The moral rights of the author in the computing world, the publishing market and a world globalised by digital media

Abstract

The text discusses the moral rights of the author in relation to his work in the computer world, the publishing market and a world globalised by the digital environment. It starts from the list in Article 24 of Law No. 9,610/98, which secures the rights to claim authorship, to have one's name indicated, to keep the work unpublished, to ensure its integrity, to modify it, to withdraw it from circulation and to have access to a unique and rare copy, and examines the duality of copyright, contrasting the monist and dualist theories as to the legal nature of the author's right and the coexistence of its moral and patrimonial aspects. It dwells on the right of withdrawal, including its repercussions in the publishing market, the right of access to the unpublished work and the right of repudiation, drawing on episodes reported in the press and on judicial pronouncements. It holds that, although secured at constitutional and infra-constitutional level and in international conventions, among them the Berne Convention of 1886 and its later revisions, the moral rights of the author continue to be constantly infringed.