This resource list is intended for use by students of the Department of Art, Southwest Baptist University.  This resource list does not offer legal advice.  Persons wanting legal advice or counsel for specific circumstances should contact a lawyer.

NOTICE: Care has been taken to select and the resources in this bibliography.  Inclusion of sites and resources listed in this bibliography in no way signifies any official endorsement by the faculty of the University Libraries or the University.  Web sites are subject to changes in their location and content.

The Copyright Law of the United States of America, Title 17 United States Code

Linda F. Pinkerton, John T. Guardalabene. 

The Art Law Primer : a Manual for Visual Artists.

New York, NY : N. Lyons Books, c1988.

DuBoff, Leonard D. 

Art Law in a Nutshell. 

St. Paul, MN : West Pub. Co., 1993.

Conner, Floyd... [et al.]. 

The Artist's Friendly Legal Guide.  

Cincinnati, Ohio : North Light Books, c1988.

Crawford, Tad and Eva Doman Bruck. 

Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers.

New York : Allworth Press, c1995.

Peloso, Jennifer. 

Intellectual Property.

Bronx, N.Y. : H.W. Wilson Co., 2003.

(see section III. Copyright, pages 87-124).

VISUAL ARTISTS' RIGHTS IN A DIGITAL AGE.  Harvard Law Review; Jun94, Vol. 107 Issue 8, p1977, 18p

+Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990

+moral rights of U.S. artists

THE VISUAL ARTISTS RIGHTS ACT OF 1990. by Katherine J. Carver.

Afterimage; Jan/Feb2004, Vol. 31 Issue 4, p4-8.

+Example of Copyright Infringement Case regarding photographs

Coogan v. Avnet, Inc.

+Example of Copyright Infringement Case regarding sculpture

 Phillips v. Pembroke Real Estate, Inc.

http://www.vlaa.org/documents/copyright03.pdf

http://www.copyright.gov/

Artist's Guide to the Visual Artist Rights Act: Understanding Your (Limited) Moral Rights

from: Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts: St. Louis

(Volunteer Lawyers & Accountants for the Arts)

KC Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts

115 W. 18th St., Kansas City, MO 64108

(816) 472-3535

St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts
6128 Delmar, St. Louis, MO 63112
(314) 863-6930

Visual Arts

(according to the U.S. Copyright office)

Examples of visual arts works:  Advertisements, commercial prints, labels; Artificial flowers and plants; Artwork applied to clothing or to other useful articles; Bumper stickers, decals, stickers; Cartographic works, such as maps, globes, relief models; Cartoons, comic strips; Collages; Dolls, toys; Drawings, paintings, murals; Enamel works; Fabric, floor, and wallcovering designs; Games, puzzles; Greeting cards, postcards, stationery; Holograms, computer and laser artwork; Jewelry designs; Models; Mosaics; Needlework and craft kits; Original prints, such as engravings, etchings, serigraphs, silk screen prints, woodblock prints; Patterns for sewing, knitting, crochet, needlework; Photographs, photomontages; Posters; Record jacket artwork or photography; Relief and intaglio prints; Reproductions, such as lithographs, collotypes; Sculpture, such as carvings, ceramics, figurines, maquettes, molds, relief sculptures; Stained glass designs; Stencils, cut-outs; Technical drawings, architectural drawings or plans, blueprints, diagrams, mechanical drawings, and Weaving designs, lace designs, tapestries.

Copyright owners have five fundamental rights :  the exclusive rights of reproduction; adaptation; publication; performance, and display (Copyright Law 17 USCS § 106)

·    the right to reproduce copyrighted work (reproduction rights)

·    the right to create derivative works based on the copyrighted work (adaptation rights)

·    the right to distribute copies of the copyright work (distribution rights)

·    the right to perform the work (does not apply to most visual art works)

·    the right to display the work (display rights)

Exclusive Rights of Copyright Owner

The five separate rights listed above under "Copyright Ownership Rights" comprise the “Exclusive Rights” of the copyright owne.

The right of attribution gives the visual artist the right to be named as author of a work; the right to prevent use of his or her name as author of a work he or she did not create; and the right to prevent the use of his or her name if the work has been distorted, mutilated or modified in a manner that would be prejudicial to the
artist's honor or reputation. 17 U.S.C. 106A(a) (1990).

The right of integrity allows the artist to prevent intentional distortion or modification of the work that would be prejudicial to the artist's honor or reputation, and to prevent destruction of a work of recognized stature.  The rights granted by VARA are not absolute.  Some instances, particularly those involving works in public spaces and buildings, require a case-by-case analysis.

Original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with type aid of a machine or device.” U.S. Copyright Office.

A work is original and thus qualifies for copyright protection if the work is independently created by the author and possesses some minimal degree of creativity.

A work of authorship must contain some evidence of creativity and originality such as original pictorial, graphic, sculptural works and both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of fine, graphic, and applied art.

Copyright protection does not extend to the idea underlying the work; Only the expression of the idea in a fixed form is protected.

“A work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, or when a work is commissioned and both parties (artist and client) have entered into a written agreement that the work will be considered a work made for hire.  For more information see the Copyright Circular #11 – Works Made for Hire Under the 1976 Copyright Act : http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf

The notice informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication. This notice is required if the works is first published before March 1, 1989.  Otherwise use of a notice is optional. Elements, position and content of copyright notice are detailed in Copyright Circular 3.

analysis of isolated elements of each work to the exclusion of the other elements, combination of elements, and expressions therein.  Copyright protection does not extend to any "idea" or "concept," "regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." 17 U.S.C. § 102(b)

This test is used to determine whether two works share a similarity of ideas and expression as measured by external, objective criteria.

A "subjective comparison that focuses on whether the ordinary, reasonable audience would find the works substantially similar in the total concept and feel of the works." Cavalier v. Random House, Inc., 297 F.3d 815, 822 (9th Cir. 2002)

This page is a work in progress.  Additional resources will be added in the near future.

Last updated: 2-8-2007