Authors 'own' their work and can decide what should happen to it.

This is enshrined in Art. 9 para. 1 CopA, under which an author has 'the exclusive right to their own work.' This is understood to be a right that can be asserted against any other person (similar to the right of ownership). It does not matter whether or not this other person has a legally regulated (e.g. contractual or employment) relationship with the author.

This exclusive right guarantees two kinds of rights (or legal positions) to authors:

• the moral right of the author and
• the property right

These legal positions grant authors a whole range of claims and rights. In practice, this distinction is particularly relevant when it has to be decided whether authors can assign their copyrights to others. The moral right of the author cannot be assigned, but the property right can be assigned to others.