“An Artist never dies”- Demystifying Moral Rights in India

The article seeks to explore the transformative journey of the growth of moral rights in India. Moral rights elevate the artist above the proprietary, thereby protecting against alteration, misattribution and mutilation. The amendment to the Copyrights Act, 1957 has sparked an intense deliberation among the academic community as it was found to be inadequate with regards to the recognition of moral rights in India. This research is delineated with the intention of identifying the Indian legal system's moral rights regime. The paper rolls out by outlining a number of situations and events that historically mark the emergence of this concept both globally and within India. In spite of the formal rhetoric of legal systems all over the world, this research reveals that moral rights have been handled incorrectly, insufficiently, and in contrast to their economic counterparts within the copyright bundle, which have been given much more careful consideration. This article emphasizes on the restoration of morality from political biases, redundant policies, contradiction in terms of judgements by throwing light on difference of perspective by common law countries and civil law countries. Moral right’s journey through illustrative case laws, historical significance, its stance under international conventions, its position under foreign laws and lastly its take in Indian jurisprudence is being put forth. Because as per Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Dead he is not, but departed, for the artist never dies.”