The phrase ‘authors’ rights’ refers to copyright laws, which protect the rights of authors. Although the term “authors’ rights” is used, it can mean the artist, architect, musician, songwriter, scriptwriter, and thus any person responsible for the creation of the work. Authors’ rights include the commercial value aspect of creating a copyright-protected work and the authors’ rights as related to moral rights. Authors have intellectual property rights to their work, which have a specific time limit calculated according to the type of copyright-protected work. The intellectual property rights give the author the right to financial gain from a piece of work, which can be by means of royalties, where a license agreement is in place, or by means of direct income when the author sells a work directly.
Authors’ rights also refer to the rights of the author to allow public display or performance of their work. As such, the author has the authority to deny the right to public performance of a piece of work. An author can, for instance, deny the right to embed a video from YouTube in a website or to have it displayed at all. Authors’ rights, as related to moral rights, include the right to be identified as the author of a work and to make objections regarding the application or distortion of a piece of work if it will harm the reputation of the author. Authors’ moral rights differ from country to country.
When it comes to authors’ rights for ghostwriting, it is important that the person who commissions the work ensures that a contract is in place whereby the ghostwriter sells the work and ownership thereof to the person who commissioned it. Although with ghostwriting no byline may be needed, it is customary to allow the ghostwriter the right to use the authorship of the work in their CV or profile.
Source: Understanding Authors’ Rights · Smit & Van Wyk