1. “Moral Rights” mean that an author has a right to the protection on the personal and spiritual interest regarding his work. Because such work is part of the author’s personality, such as reputation, popularity, it is necessary to protect the interest arising from the spiritual part of the special relationship between the author and his work. The protected rights are called “moral rights” that are vested in Article 15 (right to publish), Article 16 (right to show the author’s name) and Article 17 (right to keep conformity of the work). “Right to publish” means that an author has a right to publish his work to the public, for example, whether to publish his work, when to publish it, and how to publish it. Regarding how to publish his work, Article 3, Paragraph 1, Clause 15 of the same act refers it to “public issue by the rights holder of the content of a work to the public through publication, broadcast, presentation, recitation, performance, display, or other means.” “Right to show the author’s name” means that an author shall have the right to indicate his name, a pseudonym, or anonym on the original or copies of the work, or when the work is publicly released. That is vested in Article 16. Moreover, “right to keep conformity of the work” is also known as “right to enjoin improper modification of the work,” “right to keep the completeness of the work” or “right to maintain the status quo of the work.” According to Article 17, such right means that an author has the right to prohibit others from distorting, mutilating, modifying, or otherwise changing the content, form, or name (e.g., book title, article title or thesis statement, headline) of the work, thereby damaging the author's reputation. (When the author grants or assigns to other person a right to modify the work, the grantee or assignee often needs to change the conformity of the work. However, such change will not necessarily harm the original author’s reputation. So, the law requires the damages of the author’s reputation as an element of a cause of action. Then, the use of the work will not be influenced.)
2. A defendant is not the author of legal documents submitted in his criminal case. The expression through those legal documents is just an argument presented in the proceeding of litigation. It is not a public issue of the content of a work to the public through publication, broadcast, presentation, recitation, performance, display, or other means, so as to infringe Petitioner’s right to publish his work. It is not that the author’s name or pseudonym was not shown as so to infringe Petitioner’s right to show the author’s name. It is not that the distortion, mutilation, modification, or other changes of the content, form, or name, of the work, so as to infringe Petitioner’s right to keep conformity of his work. Lastly, it is not the copying of the content of the article as Plaintiff asserted. Therefore, Plaintiff’s complaint that Defendant infringed his moral rights and right to reproduce is denied.