As the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held the 38th session of its Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), Luke Alcott spoke on behalf of the International Authors Forum (IAF) to give authors’ view on the Artist’s Resale Right (ARR):
On behalf of over 700,000 authors including visual artists, we wish to express our thanks to those member states who have supported the Resale Royalty Right (or droit de suite), in particular Senegal and Congo for their proposal to include Artist’s Resale Royalty Right as a standing item on the future agenda of the SCCR, which we approve of. We thank all the member states who have supported the establishment of the task force on Resale Royalty Right. We would like to support the statements made by the Africa group regarding the importance of Resale Royalty Right at an international level.
We welcome the announcement that the task force will be researching cross-border transactions as we have seen how the Resale Royalty Right can support artists as a matter of international fairness and balance.
We hope we can further support the work of the task force through the expertise of our members who manage, support or hope to establish this right in their country.
- Resale Royalty Right can give a fair contribution from the global art market to the community of the creator.
- It is important that artists in all countries can benefit from the resale of their creations; this is a matter of equity with how creators of other works are respected and rewarded for the continued enjoyment of their creation.
IAF strongly supports the inclusion of the Artist’s Resale Right on the SCCR agenda and the progress of the Resale Royalty Right task force at WIPO.
WIPO is a special agency of the United Nations dealing with copyright at an international level. The SCCR includes government representatives of the 191 UN member states.