Kindness or Catastrophe? Australia's experience of resale royalty rights

"Artist’s Resale Royalty in Australia: Strong evidence of a catastrophic decline in both sales and prices: Australia's Art Market Down 50%" is the title of an article in AAD (Art Antiques Design) by Australian artist and artists' resale royalty agitator John R. Walker. According to the abstract:

In this article, I shall give an overview of the highly corrosive impact, which the Artist’s Resale Royalty (ARR) has had, and is having on Australia’s Art market. The impact of ARR also appears to have had an entirely adverse reaction on the UK’s Art Market; with trade in a large proportion of valuable secondary market Art works now, quite obviously, taking flight to places like New York, Switzerland and Miami. Below, as you will see, many reputable, and governmental sources have been cited. Due to the implementation of this scheme, we, in Australia, have sadly seen our indigenous Art sector virtually wither away right in front of our eyes since the ARR was introduced back in 2010.

I’m an Australian Artist, I’m not being paid to write this, and the below is an honest appraisal of what we are facing here due to the ARR, and it is written based on my personal experience, and on factual publicly available information.

This article powerfully and persuasively puts the case for taking an urgent look at a scheme which, however well-intentioned its implementation may have been, appears to be in need of careful reappraisal.

To read this article in full, click here

Graffiti and copyright law: a new article

A 42-page draft article, "Outlawed Art: Finding a Home for Graffiti in Copyright Law", by Nicole A. Grant (Columbia University, Law School), has been posted on SSRN (click here for details).

The abstract of this thoughtful illustrated article reads as follows:

"An intractable tension exists between the existence of graffiti as iconoclastic youth expression and the emergence of its recognition as an art form, and the boundaries of American copyright law. As graffiti gains more traction in the mainstream art world, copyright law has come to frame much of the discussion surrounding the rights that stem from (and that are overlooked by) the creation of these works. While graffiti is heralded for its uniqueness, it also thrives in a culture of appropriation that encourages dialogue among graffiti artists, in addition to establishing as the norm the pilfering of everyday cultural referents for artistic use. On the one hand, the [United States] Copyright Act grants protection to all original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression, which ostensibly could include illegal works of graffiti. On the other hand, the rights that could be extended to graffiti artists are limited by the nature of graffiti itself - by virtue of its illegality, there is the risk that works lose a layer of protection when pitted against the property owners whose buildings act as unwitting canvases, and other artists from whom a graffiti artist/secondary user culls material for his own work. This Paper addresses the competing interests and tensions that arise from these considerations, ultimately asking the question whether copyright law can find any coherence in the culture and art of graffiti".