Authors’ rights are a part of copyright law. The term is a direct translation of the French term droit d’auteur (also German Urheberrecht), and is generally used in relation to the copyright laws of civil law countries and in European Union law. Authors' rights are internationally protected by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and by other similar treaties. “Author” is used in a very wide sense, and includes composers, artists, sculptors and even architects: in general, the author is the person whose creativity led to the protected work being created, although the exact definition varies from country to country.

Authors’ rights have two distinct components: the economic rights in the work and the moral rights of the author. The economic rights are a property right which is limited in time and which may be transferred by the author to other people in the same way as any other property (although many countries require that the transfer must be in the form of a written contract). They are intended to allow the author or their holder to profit financially from his or her creation, and include the right to authorize the reproduction of the work in any form (Article 9, Berne Convention)[1]. The authors of dramatic works (plays, etc.) also have the right to authorize the public performance of their works (Article 11, Berne Convention).

The protection of the moral rights of an author is based on the view that a creative work is in some way an expression of the author’s personality: the moral rights are therefore personal to the author, and cannot be transferred to another person except by testament when the author dies.[2] The moral rights regime differs greatly between countries, but typically includes the right to be identified as the author of the work and the right to object to any distortion or mutilation of the work which would be prejudicial to his or her honour or reputation (Article 6bis, Berne Convention). In many countries, the moral rights of an author are perpetual.

Intellectual property law and Intellectual rights
Primary rights

Copyright Patent Trademark Trade secret Geographical indication

Sui generis rights

Authors' rights Database right Indigenous intellectual property Industrial design right Integrated circuit layout design protection Moral rights Plant breeders' rights Related rights Supplementary protection certificate Utility model

Distinction between common law copyright and civil law authors’ rights

It is common to draw a distinction in the treatment of authors and other interested parties between common law jurisdictions and civil law systems. Although there are certainly differences between national laws, the differences in effective protection should not be overstated. Both copyright and authors’ rights arose in the eighteenth century to address identical problems: the inequality in relations between authors and publishers (and between publishers themselves) if intellectual property is not recognised and protected, and the need to provide an income for authors other than patronage. Both systems provide for a monopoly right granted to the author for a limited term which can be transferred to another person, which was initially the right to copy or otherwise reproduce the work (hence “copyright”) but has since been expanded to take account of technological developments.

Use in European Union law

The term “authors’ rights” is used in European Union law[8] to avoid ambiguity, in preference to the more usual translation of droit d’auteur etc. as “copyright”. The equivalent term in British and Irish law is “copyright (subsisting) in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work”[9]; the term in Maltese and Cypriot law is similar, except that dramatic works are treated as a subset of literary works.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors'_rights