Last updated 12 February 2026
The right of attribution provides that the creator of a work should be known as author of the work whenever:
- a literary, dramatic or musical work is reproduced, published, performed, communicated or adapted
- an artistic work is reproduced, published, exhibited or communicated
- a film is copied, exhibited or transmitted (ss 194–195 Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (Copyright Act)).
The author must be identified in a clear and reasonably prominent way (s 195AA Copyright Act).
Some practical examples where the right of attribution would be infringed are where:
- a television program uses a musical work without the composer being mentioned in the credits as author of the music or the lyrics
- a writer submits an article to a magazine for publication, some parts of the body of article are altered by the publisher, and the article is then published without reference to the writer
- an artist buys a painting by another artist and superimposes his own signature over the original artist’s signature before selling it on.