Resale Royalty Rights

Resale Royalty Rights

Based on California Lawyers for the Arts information:

A widespread consensus exists among developed countries that a visual artist is entitled to share in the increased value of his work, even after the work’s initial sale. The experience in these countries makes plain that an artists’ royalty can provide significant benefits to visual artists and to society in general.

The first legislation providing a resale-royalty right to visual artists, often referred to as the droit de suite, originated in France in 1920 (according to the general manager of a French droit de suite collection agency, over $17 million in resale royalties was distributed to more than 1,700 artists in France in 1990. Jeffrey C. Wu, Art Resale Rights and the Art Resale Market: A
Follow-Up Study, 46 J. COPYRIGHT SOC’Y U.S.A. 531, 539, years 1998-1999) with Belgium,
Poland, Italy, and Germany following suit by 1965. See Stephanie B. Turner, The Artist’s Resale Royalty Right: Overcoming the Information Problem, 19 UCLA ENT. L. REV. 329, 335-36 (2012).

From the 1960s onward, countries of staggering diversity-both legally and culturally-codified resale royalties for visual artists. Those countries included Algeria, Australia, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Guinea, Mali, and Turkey. See also Shira Perlmutter, Resale Royalties for Artists:
An Analysis of the Register of Copyrights’ Report, 16 COLUM.-VLA J.L. & ARTS 395, 395 (1991-1992) (noting that approximately 30 countries had enacted some form of resale royalty by 1992). Moreover, in 2001, the European Union issued a directive requiring that all European Union member states implement a resale royalty. Following that directive, the United Kingdom, a common-law country, enacted resale-royalty legislation in 2006. (see Turner, supra, at 337-38).

There are three main benefits to the visual artists’ resale-royalty laws in force around the world. See Katreina Eden, Fine Artists’ Resale Royalty Right Should Be Enacted in the United States, 18 N.Y. INT’L L. REV. 121, 140-45 (2005):

  • First, giving artists a share of the increased value of their work gives them a financial incentive to create new art. The resale-royalty right “is a promise, equally available to all, of reward for future success” that can encourage young artists to continue producing new works despite economic hardship. (1)
  • Second, such laws put visual artists on par with other artists, includingwriters and musicians, who traditionally benefit from copyright protection when reproductions of their works are sold. (2)
  • Third, resale-royalty laws fairly compensate an artist for her creative genius and for the effort she has put into improving her reputation within the artistic community over the course of her career. Artists are ultimately responsible for their works’ increased value. (3)

The California Resale Royalties Act (CRRA) applies to works of fine art.

Resources

Notes

  1. The incentive effect can be immediate, as even a modest royalty can help pay for an artist’s next work, which often requires expensive upfront investment in studio space, materials, or models.
  2. Visual artists produce art prized for its oneof-a-kind nature, making copies much less commercially valuable. Consequently, a work of fine art is exploited differently than a book, a play, or a musical composition. Its value lies in the “uniqueness of the original physical embodiment, the painting or sculpture itself.” (Perlmutter). Each transfer of fine art is therefore a new exploitation of the work that enables a new circle of users to enjoy the original work. See Michael B. Reddy, The Droit de Suite: Why American Fine Artists Should Have the Right to a Resale Royalty, 15 LOY. L.A. ENT. L.J. 509, 518 (1995). Resale-royalty laws are grounded in the sensible notion that visual artists should be given an incentive like that given to authors and musicians, by allowing visual artists to share in the popularity of their creations over time.
  3. They should not be cut out of the enormous profits reaped by collectors and dealers. Art is more than a mere economic asset; it is also an embodiment of the artist’s own vision and personality, gaining value, in part, because of its link to its creator. See Reddy. Both the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, to which the United States is a signatory, and the Visual Artists Rights Act, passed by Congress in 1990, recognize the artist’s unique right to participate in the future use of his creations. Resale-royalty laws likewise recognize that a visual artist has an important stake in the future sale of his work because of how closely the value of art is associated with the person who created it.

See Also

    • Royalty
    • Copyright
    • Licensing
    • Artists
    • Artist Law
    • Royalty Rate
    • Resale Price Method
    • Outline of International art and cultural heritage law
    • Refugee Rights
    • International Copyright

Further Reading

  • Katreina Eden, Fine Artists’ Resale Royalty Right Should Be Enacted in the United States, 18 N.Y. INT’L L. REV. 121, 140-45 (2005)
  • Shira Perlmutter, Resale Royalties for Artists: An Analysis of the Register of Copyrights’ Report, 16 Colum.-VLA J.L. & Arts
  • Michael B. Reddy, The Droit de Suite: Why American Fine Artists Should Have the Right to a Resale Royalty, 15 LOY. L.A. ENT. L.J. 509, 518 (1995)
  • Stephanie B. Turner, The Artist’s Resale Royalty Right: Overcoming the Information Problem, 19 UCLA ENT. L. REV. 329, 335-36 (2012)
  • Jeffrey C. Wu, Art Resale Rights and the Art Resale Market: A Follow-Up Study, 46 J. Copyright Soc’y U.S.A. 531, 539 (1998-1999)

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