No. 54Legal & Compliance
Moral Rights
Also called right of integrity, right of attribution, droit moral, author's moral rights
Your right to be credited as the creator of your work and to object to distorted or mutilated uses.
Watch closely
Moral rights waivers in US contracts can permanently remove your ability to object to distorted uses of your work.
- Appears in
- Recording Agreement, Publishing Deal, Licensing Agreement
- Topic
- Artist Rights
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- Reviewed
- July 2026
In plain English
Moral rights are personal rights distinct from copyright, they include the right of attribution (to be credited as the creator) and the right of integrity (to object to modifications that harm your reputation). They are strong in most European jurisdictions and weaker in the US, where they can be waived by contract.
Why it matters
Without moral rights protections, your recordings can be edited, remixed, or used in offensive contexts without you being credited or being able to object. US contracts routinely include moral rights waivers, artists sign away these protections without understanding they exist.
Where it can land
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
- Blanket moral rights waiver, you waive all moral rights 'to the fullest extent permitted by law'
- No attribution requirement, label can release recordings without crediting the artist
- Label can modify recordings without any quality control threshold
- Moral rights waived for US purposes but retained for EU/UK jurisdictions (acceptable compromise)
- Attribution required on physical formats but not on streaming or digital platforms
- Artist credited on all commercial releases in all formats
- Right of integrity preserved, artist can object to derogatory uses even where statute allows waiver
The language
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.