The Right of Remorse and Withdrawal

The financial right of an author is an exclusive right that belongs solely to the author or can be licensed to others for use and exploitation under a contract. Generally, once this contract is validly concluded, according to the general rules stipulated in civil law, the contract binds both parties, requiring each contracting party to fulfill their obligations arising from this contract as if it were imposed by law, which in legal doctrine is expressed as (the contract is the law of the parties).

However, this financial right of the author is surpassed by another type of right of a special nature, absolute and intimately connected to the author’s personality, known as the moral right. The parental relationship that binds the author to his work makes him always keen to ensure it is a living reflection of his personality. If an author perceives that it no longer aligns with his conviction or is based on incorrect ideas inconsistent with his beliefs, the law grants him the ability to reconsider it through regret and withdraw it from circulation for the purpose of (modifying or destroying it entirely).

Accordingly, the Qatari legislator, in Article 9 of Law No. (7) of 2002 concerning the protection of copyright and related rights, emphasized the protection of the author’s right to withdraw their work after it has been circulated. The article stipulates that “an author must refrain from any action that would impede the assignee from using the assigned right. However, the author may withdraw their work from circulation or make any modifications by deletion or addition after reaching an agreement with the assignee. If an agreement is not reached, the author is obliged to fairly compensate the affected party.”

This right belongs to the category of moral rights granted by laws as a right of the author, making it inalienable from the author, as it is inherently linked to them. This right is given to the author for several considerations and reasons. For instance, an author may express opinions in their work they later realize were incorrect, upon which the work was built, or discover a need for substantial modification to their work without which the literary piece’s reputation and standing may be negatively impacted. Consequently, this may lead the author to withdraw the literary work from circulation.