Provides individuals with the right not to be named on works which they have not created.

• the right to object to false attribution applies whether or not the claimant is an author
• the right to object to false attribution applies to persons (Clark v Associated newspaper) wrongly named as the authors of LDMA and as the directors of films.
• Only lasts for 20 yrs after the death of the person who is falsely said to be the author.

• This right is infringed by a person who issues copies of a work to the public or exhibits in public an artistic work on which there Is a false attribution.
• Can also be infringed by a person who performs, broadcasts or shows the work and who knows that the attribution is false.
• Whether a work has been attributed to the wrong person depends on ‘the single meaning which the … work conveys to the notional reasonable reader’ (Clark v Associated Newspaper)
  • There is no need for the complainant to prove that the attribution actually caused them any damage.
  • Noah v Shuba
    • An author’s work was held to be falsely attributed when it was attributed to the author after having been substantially added to by another person without their consent.
• The right to object to false attribution of authorship is supplemented by various non statutory causes of action such as the action of passing off or defamation.
  • Ridge v Engish illustrated magazine
    • The defendant published a story that they attributed to the plaintiff, a well known author, which in fact had been written by a grocer’s assistant from Bournemouth.
    • The court instructed the jury to find the publication to be defamatory if anyone reading the story would think that plaintiff was a mere commonplace scribbler.