Sponsors (3)
The bill creates a lasting, regulated resale-royalty stream and oversight that benefits visual artists and fund programs, but it imposes compliance costs, legal risks, potential price increases, and eligibility limits that affect sellers, buyers, small businesses, and some foreign creators.
Visual artists (authors) and their estates gain a new, predictable revenue stream from resale royalties (up to 5% on resales ≥ $5,000), payable at least quarterly and lasting for the full copyright term.
The Register of Copyrights has clearer regulatory authority over collecting societies (designation, reporting, expense limits), improving oversight to help ensure royalties are collected and distributed according to standards.
Removing Section 401 notice formalities for visual works reduces paperwork and legal complexity, lowering transaction costs for artists, museums, galleries, and sellers when displaying or transferring artworks.
Art market professionals, small galleries, and sellers must bear new compliance and administrative costs to collect and remit resale royalties within tight timeframes, increasing operating burdens.
Treble-damage remedies for late payment expose dealers and sellers to large legal liabilities, substantially increasing litigation risk and potentially threatening small businesses.
Sellers may pass resale royalty costs onto buyers, raising effective prices for art purchasers and increasing costs for middle-class families and other buyers.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal resale royalty for works of visual art: when a covered artwork is resold for $5,000 or more, the artist (or successor) is entitled to the lesser of 5% of the resale price or $50,000 (cap adjusted for inflation). The bill requires art market professionals to remit royalties to designated collecting societies, sets rules for distribution, accounting, enforcement, and eligibility, removes the statutory copyright notice requirement for visual art, mandates a five-year implementation study, and becomes effective one year after enactment.
Introduced June 17, 2025 by Jerrold Lewis Nadler · Last progress June 17, 2025