Copyright consists of a bundle of economic rights and moral rights.

Unlike economic rights, moral rights cannot be licensed or assigned to another person.

In the UK, moral rights are finite and last only as long as the work is in copyright and can be waived by the author.

Economic rights

  • Reproduction right to copy the work
  • Distribution right to issue copies of the work to the public
  • Rental right to rent or lend the work to the public
  • Public performance right to perform, show, or play the work in public
  • Communication right to communicate the work to the public
  • Adaptation right to adapt the work or do any of the above concerning an adaptation

The economic rights are

  • Exclusive: the copyright owners can exclude others from making these uses of their work without permission unless the use is otherwise permitted by law (for example, through exceptions).
  • Exhaustive of the distribution right: once a copy of a work is distributed within a territory, the copyright owner of the work cannot control the distribution of that copy any longer

Moral rights

  • Right of attribution: the right to be identified as the author of the work
  • Right of integrity: the right to object to the derogatory treatment of a work
  • Right to object to false attribution of the work
  • Right of privacy in privately commissioned photographs and films.

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.