Advocacy
Intellectual-Property Rights
CAA monitors and takes action on proposed changes to intellectual-property law, including copyright law. While the fields of art and art history are comprised of both users and creators of intellectual property, CAA supports scholarly access to information and legal implementation of the fair-use doctrine in all media.CAA further encourages curators, librarians, collectors, dealers, public officials, and all others entrusted with the custody of works of art or documents associated with works of art to make these available for study to scholars, artists, and students.
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Copyright Case
January 2008
The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Kahle v. Ashcroft, brought by Internet Archive and Open Content Alliance founders Brewster Kahle and Rick Prelinger in 2003, which challenged the constitutionality of the current copyright regime. Click here to read more. Art Law Blogs
July 2007
Two websites, the Law Portal and the Art Law Blog, publish on issues of importance to the intersections of art and the law. Click here to read more. Copyright Reform Legislation Update
May 2007
The process of copyright clearance for art scholars and teachers, publishers, and artists remains burdensome but moved one step closer to improving in 2006 with the development of a proposed revision to the US Copyright Act, in the form of legislation to address the problem of so-called orphan works. Click here to read more. Museum Ends Reproduction Fees
March 2007
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, has announced that, beginning this year, it will no longer charge reproduction fees for its images used in scholarly publications. Click here to read more. Report on Fair Use and Copyright Control
January 2006
In summer 2005, CAA members--including artists, scholars, curators, and gallerists--took part in a focus group conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice's Free Expression Policy Project (FEPP) to gather information on how copyright law in today's "ownership society" affects the arts. Click here to read more. Orphan Copyright Update
July 2005
CAA has joined many other scholarly associations and research libraries to advocate for legislative change in copyright law regarding “orphan” copyrights—works still in copyright for which no rights holder can be found. To read more about CAA’s ongoing efforts, please visit www.collegeart.org/orphan-works.Click here to read more.
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Copyright Extension
March 2003
On January 15, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), which extends the term of copyright by twenty years. Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that “we are not at liberty to second-guess congressional determinations and policy judgments of this order, however debatable or arguably unwise they may be.” The 7-to-2 decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft clears the way for further unchecked copyright-extension laws in the future. Some analysts see a trend toward the establishment of permanent copyright, and fear the demise of the public domain. The dissenters were Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen G. Breyer. Click here to read more. 