VISUAL ARTS LEGISLATION REINTRODUCED : THREE-PART MEASURE : BILL IS REINTRODUCED TO PROTECT VISUAL ARTISTS

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has reintroduced a bill that would protect the rights of visual artists.

Kennedy first proposed the legislation, the Visual Artists Rights Act, last fall during the 99th Congress. Since no vote was taken on the legislation, it had to be reintroduced in the 100th Congress to remain viable.

The three-part Kennedy bill would protect the moral, economic and copyright interests of visual artists, said a Kennedy spokeswoman.

The first part of the bill, protecting an artist’s moral rights, gives an artist the right to be recognized as the creator of a piece of artwork, said the spokeswoman. “Similarly, if an artwork is altered, mutilated or destroyed, he’d have the right to disclaim the work as his own.”

The second part of the bill protects an artist’s economic rights, and “provides for an artist to participate in the economic appreciation of an artwork,” the spokeswoman said. “So if a work is resold, an artist would get a percentage of the appreciation” of the artwork.

The third part of the bill waives a current requirement that to receive full statutory protection against the exploitation of an artwork, artists must affix to their works a copyright notice, or the “little c in the circle,” the spokeswoman said.

“Many artists are reluctant to put the copyright notice on their work because it makes the work look commercial,” she said. “But now--without the copyright notice--if an artist complains that his work has been exploited, he is entitled only to actual damages, which are less than full statutory damages. The new bill would establish that an artwork is unique even without the copyright notice being affixed to it, and would award artists full statutory protection.”

California, along with Massachusetts and New York, has a law called the Art Preservation Act that is similar to Kennedy’s recently reintroduced legislation, and many countries around the world embrace artists’ moral and other rights, said the spokeswoman. But the United States has no national application of the law, “so this will be like a national art preservation act.”

Also like the California law, the Kennedy bill would not protect artworks attached to buildings if removal of the artworks would damage the buildings.

A final Senate vote on the bill is not expected before fall, Kennedy’s office said.