Archive of Henry Lydiate‘s Artlaw column, published in Art Monthly since 1976. Have a legal question about your career? Check our Directory or send us a legal query.
Changes to Permitted Uses
Changes to copyright law came into force in the UK on 1 June 2014, and implement policies developed by the EU aimed at facilitating use of creative works in the post digital age. UK’s Copyright, Designs…
Post-Internet Art
The World Wide Web is 25 years old this year. UK computer scientist Tim Berners Lee first proposed the concept in March 1989, and by November that year he had achieved the first Internet communication between a Hypertext…
Fair Use?
‘Copyright protection finds its justification in fair play. A person works and produces something. The product of his skill and labour ought to belong to him … It has long been recognised that only the original author ought…
Renting Art: Borrowers and Lenders Beware
Borrowing and lending art is generally a good thing. The practice can increase and broaden access by spectators who might not otherwise be able to experience directly the creative act. It can also generate…
Gallery of Lost Art
Summer 2012 in the UK was notable for the opening of two unique exhibitions with closely related themes: invisible art and lost art. On 12 June London’s Hayward Gallery opened ‘Invisible: Art About the Unseen 1957…
Authenticity Certificates Value
What is the essence of a Sol LeWitt wall drawing? What makes these works – which famously exist as a series of instructions, executable by anyone who owns them – authentic LeWitts and not just some lines…
Authentication Revisited
Authenticity certificates were explored in last month’s column (Art Monthly 355). This month we revisit the subject in the light of further authentication disputes and debates. Art Fairs have vastly increased in number over the past ten years…
Authenticity Certificates
Public and private collectors and art market professionals have started to request certificates of authenticity to accompany the transfer of ownership of works. What are they, how are they used, who provides them and what is their legal…
Editions or Series: Picking Up The Pieces
A century ago Marcel Duchamp toyed with the idea of creating a box to hold notes and sketches for his works which eventually resulted in The Green Box, 1934, containing notes for the…
What is Sculpture?
On 27 July 2011 the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) handed down a landmark judgment that decided the legal meaning of sculpture in UK copyright law. The significance of this decision is far reaching, because UK law operates…
Performance Art and The Law
The resurgence of performance related artistic practices over the past decade raises complex aesthetic, legal and, at times, ethical questions regarding the protection, authorship and ownership of the ‘works’ generated through these artistic practices. The…
The Length of Copyright
The Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performance Regulations 1995 implement EU Council Directive No 93/98/EEC and the European Economic Area 1993, which harmonise protection of copyright and certain related rights. In effect, they extend the…
Appropriation Art and Fair Uses
‘Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.’ So wrote TS Eliot in The Sacred Wood in 1920. His epigram was probably adapted from Igor Stravinsky’s comment that ‘a good composer does not imitate; he steals’, as…
Questions of Attribution
Richard Hamilton took part in a discussion, ‘The Legacy of Duchamp’, at Tate Britain in early May 2003. This pointed up many interesting reflections on contemporary visual practice, including the tracing of direct links between the works…
Appropriation of Media
In the endless search for new ideas and forms of expression, artists are increasingly embracing the use of contemporary technologies: the internet, computer hardware and software, film, video, digital cameras and sound recordings. Such new ways of…
Making Waives
A gallery which advertises a work for sale is allowed to make reproductions without the copyright owners’ permission. But it is not allowed to generally merchandise; catalogues or posters which are subsequently put on sale to the public…
New UK Legislation Part 1
Significant changes were made to UK copyright law on October 31, 2003, of which copyright owners, licensees, and other would be users of copyright works need to be aware. The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations…
Between Thought and an Expression
Two different copyright queries have been received, the responses to which should prove interesting and informative. “I was recently commissioned to produce a set of line drawings for a company who wanted to reproduce and…