What are "Moral Rights"?

[TromboneAl]

I noticed this sentence in your terms of service:

"...you warrant that all moral rights in any uploaded images and materials have been waived."

Can you explain what that means?

Thanks,

Al

[irusan]

Excerpted from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/library/moralprimer.html:

...the ability of authors to control the eventual fate of their works. An author is said to have the "moral right" to control her work. The concept of moral rights thus relies on the connection between an author and her creation. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational, rather than purely monetary, value of a work to its creator.

<snip>

...In the United States, the term "moral rights" typically refers to the right of an author to prevent revision, alteration, or distortion of her work, regardless of who owns the work. Moral rights as outlined in VARA also allow an author of a visual work to avoid being associated with works that are not entirely her own, and to prevent the defacement of her works.

[irusan]

My read on the waiving of those rights is this: if you add an image to a book and it negatively affects the reputation of the photographer, MyPublisher is not liable.

In some cases, the person building the book may not be the photographer or, more accurately, the copyright holder, even though they have been granted the right to print the image by the copyright holder.

If you uploaded an image and the original copyright holder is not happy about how it reflects on him/her, you are agreeing that MyPublisher is not at fault and that you are taking responsibility for it.

Rob

UPDATE: Oh yea, I AM NOT A LAWYER, NOR DO I PLAY ONE ON TV :-)

[TromboneAl]

Thanks, Rob.

I agree, I'm sure the lawyers put it in there to protect MP in case someone says "Hey, you altered the contrast of my photo, and I'm going to sue you."

It could be interpreted differently.

Message was edited by: TromboneAl