backBrazil’s Superior Court of Justice (STJ), through its Third Panel, has ruled that a publishing house may not create a pseudonym to sign a literary work without the author’s consent, even where there has been a full assignment of economic rights. On this basis, the court dismissed the publisher’s special appeal and upheld its conviction to pay moral and material damages to a writer whose work was released under fictitious names unilaterally chosen by the company.
The case concerned a teacher hired to prepare a biology textbook whose authorship was omitted at the time of publication. Instead, the publisher credited the work to fictional names created by the company, without the author’s knowledge or approval. Although the publisher argued that the contract authorised such practice, the lower courts found the suppression of authorship to be unlawful and awarded damages in accordance with the applicable legislation.
In reporting the case, Justice Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva emphasised that Brazil’s Copyright Act requires restrictive interpretation of contracts and safeguards the author’s moral rights, which are inalienable and non-waivable. According to the panel’s reasoning, the choice of a pseudonym forms part of these moral rights and is an exclusive prerogative of the creator, which cannot be transferred to the publisher, even by contractual provision.
Link to the Court Decision Julgamento Eletrônico
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