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Copyright Act 1994

Moral rights - Right to be identified as author or director

96: Right must be asserted

You could also call this:

"You must say you want to be known as the creator of your work to stop others using it without credit."

Illustration for Copyright Act 1994

You have the right to be identified as the author or director of a work. You must assert this right to stop others from using your work without identifying you. You can assert this right in different ways, such as when you assign the copyright or at any time by signing a written document. You can also assert this right when your artistic work is exhibited publicly. You can do this by making sure your name is on the original work or a copy of it. You can also include a statement in a licence that says you want to be identified as the author. If you assert your right, certain people will be bound by it. This includes the person you assign the copyright to and anyone who gets the work from them. It also includes anyone who is notified of your assertion or who gets the work with your name on it. If someone uses your work without identifying you, you can take them to court. The court will consider any delay in asserting your right when deciding what to do. You can find more information about this right in section 94.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM346248.

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95: Content of right to be identified, or

"Knowing who created a work: your right to be identified"

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97: Exceptions to right to be identified, or

"When you don't have the right to be named as the creator of a work"

Part 4Moral rights
Right to be identified as author or director

96Right must be asserted

  1. A person does not infringe the right conferred by section 94 by failing, in the circumstances described in that section, to identify the author as the author of the work or to identify the director as the director of the work, as the case may be, unless the right has been asserted under this section in such a way as to require that person to so identify the author or director.

  2. The right may be asserted generally, or in relation to any specified circumstances,—

  3. on an assignment of copyright in the work, by including in the instrument effecting the assignment a statement that the author or director asserts in relation to that work his or her right to be identified as the author or director, as the case may be; or
    1. at any time, by instrument in writing signed by the author or director.

      1. The right may be asserted in relation to the public exhibition of an artistic work—

      2. by ensuring that when the author or other first owner of copyright parts with possession of the original, or of a copy made by him or her or under his or her direction or control, the author is identified as the author on the original or copy, or on a frame, mount, or other thing to which it is attached; or
        1. by including in any licence by which the author or other first owner of copyright authorises the making of copies of the work a statement signed by or on behalf of the author or other first owner of the copyright that the author asserts his or her right to be identified as the author in the event of the public exhibition of a copy made in pursuance of the licence.

          1. The persons bound by an assertion of the right under subsection (2) or subsection (3) are,—

          2. in the case of an assertion under subsection (2)(a), the assignee and anyone claiming through the assignee, whether or not the person claiming through the assignee has notice of the assertion; and
            1. in the case of an assertion under subsection (2)(b), anyone to whose notice the assertion is brought; and
              1. in the case of an assertion under subsection (3)(a), anyone into whose hands that original or copy comes, whether or not the identification is still present or visible; and
                1. in the case of an assertion under subsection (3)(b), the person to whom the licence is granted and any person into whose hands a copy made in pursuance of the licence comes, whether or not the person has notice of the assertion.

                  1. In an action for infringement of the right, the court shall, in considering remedies, take into account any delay in asserting the right.