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By Abdoul Mahdieu Savage | January 16, 2023

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There are reports that artist Laur Flom, who lives in Toronto, is carving his name into some copies of JK Rowling's eponymous book, Harry Potter, to gain global recognition. The bloke who magicked this 'mother of all creativity' is now flogging the rebound copies with his name for £140 per copy. According to him, his objective is to make the book acceptable to the trans community. However, this is the less worrying aspect of this act of vandalism disguised as art.

The fact that some people think it is acceptable for the bloke to do this without the consent of the author or publisher is even more troubling. In their opinion, it is legitimate for him to infringe on JK Rowling's copyright. A red herring - a deliberate distraction - is whether JK Rowling's copyright excludes her name. In the protection of literary and artistic works, copyright law is just one tool. This problem was addressed at the Berne Convention by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

As amended on September 28, 1979, Article 6bis of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works protects the moral rights of authors. The 'right of paternity and/or integrity' of an author is described in Article 6(1). In full, here is the right:‘Independently of the author’s economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to OBJECT to ANY DISTORTION, MUTILATION or other MODIFICATION of, or OTHER DEROGATORY ACTION in relation to, the said work, which would be PREJUDICIAL to his honour or reputation.’ (Emphasis mine.)

According to Article 6(3), this provision is part of international law:’The means of redress for safeguarding the rights granted by this article shall be governed by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed.’

Don't take a leaf out of Laur Flom's book!