Tuesday, January 24, 2012

"While it may sound like a good idea in principle, the law is misguided for several reasons."

In the NYLJ, Judith Prowda, the Chair of the NYSBA Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section, argues against the proposed resale royalty bill.  She says "empirical studies have shown that the resale royalty right is ineffective and the benefits highly skewed" and that "artists may in fact be worse off in the long term with the resale royalty, as dealers may have less money to promote their careers in the primary (first sale) market and instead shift their business away from royalty liable art in the secondary (resale) market."  She concludes:  "While it is hard to argue with the concept of fairness for artists, in reality, the law does more harm than good to the majority of artists."