New Zealand Scraps Plan To Get Artists Paid Multiple Times For A Single Piece Of Work
from the getting-paid-multiple-times dept
We've never quite understood the reasoning employed in a few different countries to allow artists to get paid every time their artwork is sold. The given reason is usually that if the artwork becomes valuable at a later date, the artist should get a piece of that, but that doesn't make much sense. Once the artist becomes famous than all of his or her new works will also command a much higher premium. All such a "resale right" does is make it that much more expensive to buy and sell art, since you now have to pay a fraction of every transaction back to the artist. This actually harms the artists, because it makes people less willing to buy and sell their artwork. It basically punishes those who actually believe in an artist and buy their early works. It's been shown that such a resale right harms up-and-coming artists (it makes it more expensive to buy their works), and really only tends to help the super successful artists (i.e., those who are already earning plenty from their artwork).Lawrence D'Oliveiro alerts us to the good news that New Zealand has decided to scrap such a plan. There's not a full explanation for why the plan was scrapped, but it has economically ignorant artists complaining that it's just not fair and it means New Zealand "doesn't value its artists." Hopefully someone will explain to them that making it more expensive for their artwork to be sold means that they'll be selling a lot less artwork -- and that doesn't seem very "valuable" at all.
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Filed Under: artist resale rights, artists, copyright, new zealand, right of first sale
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More Background
Found a bunch more items at the NZ Herald website discussing this plan. It was first mooted by the Labour Government back in 2007:
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Does New Zealand value skilled workers?
If an architect creates a nice house design, shouldn't they get a cut when the house is resold? Therefor too should the carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers, etc.
Sheesh.
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Re: Does New Zealand value skilled workers?
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Where's the evidence?
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Everyone should get a cut
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Given the subject matter covered by California law, it is refreshing to note that in all likelihood neither the RIAA nor the MPAA were behind the legislation's enactment into law.
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Of course, the flip side is artist would have to pay if their art was ever sold at a loss. Life isn't a ratchet; you can't expect to have a perpetual upside.
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You know it will happen...
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