S 2045 · 113th Congress 2013–2015, ended

American Royalties Too Act of 2014

Fact sheet

Latest action · Feb 26, 2014 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedFeb 26, 2014
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

American Royalties Too Act of 2014 - Expands copyright owners' exclusive rights, in the case of a work of visual art, to include the right to collect or authorize the collection of a royalty if the work is sold by a person other than the author for at least $5,000 in an auction.

Defines "auction" as a public sale of visual art to the highest bidder run by an entity that sold at least $1 million of works of visual art during the previous year.

Revises the term "work of visual art" to make requirements for photographs consistent with requirements for paintings, drawings, and prints. (Currently, a photograph must be a still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only.)

Limits the amount of such a royalty to the lesser of: (1) 5% of the purchase price; or (2) $35,000, subject to cost-of-living adjustments.

Directs entities conducting such auctions to collect and pay the royalties to a visual artists' copyright collecting society. Requires the collecting society, at least four times each year, to distribute the appropriate royalties (minus administrative expenses) to authors or successor copyright owners.

Requires an author of a work of visual art, in order to be eligible to receive such a royalty, to: (1) be a citizen of, or domiciled in, the United States or a country that provides resale royalty rights; or (2) have first created the work in the United States or a country that provides such royalty rights.

Establishes a copyright infringement offense for the failure to pay such a royalty. Subjects infringers to: (1) statutory damages, and (2) liability for the full royalty.

Prohibits the sale, assignment, or waiver of the right to collect such a royalty, subject to exceptions for works made for hire and transfers of copyright ownership.

Directs the Register of Copyrights to issue regulations governing visual artists' copyright collecting societies.

Cosponsors 1

Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Feb 26, 2014.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
D-MAEdward J. MarkeyOriginalFeb 26, 2014

Actions 2

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Feb 26, 2014Introduced in Senate
  2. Feb 26, 2014Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Related bills 1

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
HR 4103American Royalties Too Act of 2014Identical billMar 20, 2014

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Commerce.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Feb 26, 2014Introduced in Senate

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.