Intellectual Property and the Arts
This section provides links to CAA’s activities on intellectual-property matters as well as to useful websites and resources of other organizations.
CAA’s members are both copyright owners and users of copyrighted material. Artists and authors create new works, and many also quote from, or repurpose material created by others.
General Information
Guidelines for Correct Captioning of Images
Clear, complete captions to images are an obligation of scholarly citation. In addition, good captions provide useful information to subsequent users of images, providing a clear statement of the copyright status of the image and distinguishing copyright from other kinds of access control.
CAA recommends that all publishers and authors adopt a policy of clear, accurate, and complete captioning of images, whether in print or as image metadata online, and whether the information will appear with the image or on a picture list of photograph-rights page.
The U.S. Copyright Office website offers definitions and explanations of the law, as well as other useful information: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
One of the best websites for information on copyright is that of the Stanford University Libraries:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/
A good resource for information on copyright in the academic environment is the Association of Research Libraries website: http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/index.shtml
Useful to librarians is “Know Your Copy Rights: Using Copyrighted Works in Academic Settings”: http://www.knowyourcopyrights.org/
CAA Initiatives
Guidelines for Correct Captioning of Images
CAA News Articles on Intellectual Property Matters
- Images and the Public Domain, from CAA News, September 2003
- Clearing Permissions for Photos of Copyrighted Artworks, from CAA News, November 2003
- Digital Images and the Slide Library, from CAA News, January 2004
- Artists and Copyright, from CAA News, March 2004
- Artists and Moral Rights, from CAA News, May 2004
- Image Fees, from CAA News, January 2005
- Appropriation, from CAA News, March 2005
- Work for Hire, from CAA News, May 2005
- “Working with the Law and with Your Institutional Counsel” by Steven McDonald, CAA News, July 2004
- “Digital Images: Access, Rights, and Distribution” by Helen Ronan, CAA News, September 2004
- “Copyright Clearance: A Publisher's Perspective” by Susan Bielstein, CAA News, September 2005
Orphan Works
Orphan works are works (images/photos, letters, books, works of art, and others) that are still formally protected by copyright, but where a potential user—scholar, teacher, artist, publisher, or other person or institution—is unable to clear rights. A work may be “orphaned” when a) there is no copyright information associated with the work; b) the information is inadequate or inaccurate; or c) attempts to contact possible rights holders have proved futile (no one at last known address; publisher out of business, no responses to letters, etc.). For CAA members, the problems posed by orphan works can be considerable. The Copyright Office has suggested that there is some value in being able to use these works, even if rights cannot be cleared. For more information on what CAA is doing, please return to this page in the next few days.
Fair Use
Fair Use is a doctrine in U.S. copyright law, which also exists, in a more restricted sense, in UK copyright law, as “fair dealing.” For further information on what fair use is (and is not) and how to assess whether to assert fair use rather than obtaining permission for use from a copyright holder, see the Stanford Fair Use Overview
CAA is currently preparing a formal Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, to guide our members—both copyright owners and users of copyrighted material—in making responsible, effective use of the Fair Use doctrine in the fields of visual art practice and scholarship.
In 2005 CAA worked with the Free Expression Policy Project of the Brennan Center for Justice of New York University on a survey of visual artists, authors, gallerists, and other stakeholders in the visual arts to assess the effectiveness of fair use assertions in our community.
Other CAA Statements on Intellectual Property and the Arts
- CAA Statement on the Importance of Documenting the Historical Context of Objects and Sites
- Statement on Image Rights, Costs, and Publishing
- Publishing Requirements for Tenure and Promotion in Art History
When Works Enter the Public Domain (Term of Copyright)
Copyright Basics
- The University of Texas Copyright Crash Course
- U.S. Copyright Office Copyright Basics
- U.S. Copyright Office pages on how to register copyright of a work of visual art
- U.S. Copyright Office pages on how to register copyright of a text
- Creative Commons – A licensing alternative to copyright
- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
- Indiana University Student Guidelines on Plagiarism
Image Rights
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Study: Museum Image Rights Charges
American Association of Museums Report on Image Right and Reproductions
Responses to Copyright, Access, and Cost Challenges
Image Rights Clearance Agencies in the US:
Artists Rights Society
536 Broadway, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 212-420-9160
Fax: 212-420-9286
The Visual Artists and Galleries Association
350 Fifth Avenue, Ste. 2820
New York, NY 10118-2820
Image Rights Clearance Agencies outside the US:
International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC)
International Council of Authors of Graphic, Plastic, and Photographic Arts (CIAGP)
VG-Bildkunst, Germany
Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), U.K.
33 Great Sutton Street
London EC1V 0DX U.K.
Image Banks:
Art Resource
Scala
ARTstor Images for Academic Publishing (IAP)