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.
What works are covered / protected by copyright?
The simple answer is – any original work made in any medium whether visual, musical, dramatic, literary, film, video, TV or sound broadcasts, including artworks (paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints of any…
The Tax Man Cometh
Reading last month’s Page Two (Art Monthly No.74) contribution by Jennifer Oille, reporting the apparently unfair and inequitable treatment of artists under Canadian tax laws, stimulated some comparison with our own regime; sharing these thoughts might…
Second Year Review
The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) is currently conducting a post implementation review of the first two years’ operation of the Artist’s Resale Right (ARR), introduced into UK law in February 2006 and throughout the rest of…
If I hire a stand at an Art Fair to sell my own artwork, what can I do if the event is cancelled?
You need to check the hire contract for your contractual rights. The company will be in breach…
Photographing Art Collections
In May 2007 a conference was held in London to discuss a leading court judgment, made in 1999, which ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images could not be protected by copyright because the copies…
Stamp of Approval
The Stamp Art and Postal History of Michael Thompson and Michael Hernandez de Luna was recently published in the US and makes fascinating reading. The authors are mail artists, who teamed up in 1994 to pursue their…
Riding the D-Train (part 1)
Because of the unique nature of every practitioner’s financial circumstances, it has seemed impossible over the past nine years to address, in a meaningful way in this column, one vital issue. My failure to do…
Collaborations
If two or more artists collaborate on a work of art, which one of them will own the copyright of the finished work? What if there has been a creative partnership between two artists and one of them wishes…
Dear landlord, please don’t put a price on my soul
It happened to artists in New York and Chicago in the sixties, and it’s beginning to happen in London today. Artists seek out and find low cost studio space in…
What is the difference between a work/live and a live/work space?
There is an important difference between work/live and live/work spaces due to the planning requirements of local planning authorities. In work/live spaces the emphasis is on the space being…
First Semester Report
On February 14, 2006, the UK Artists’ Resale Right (ARR) came into operation, after a year long media campaign on behalf of UK art market professionals opposing its introduction, and a media campaign led by the Design…
Recording Visiting Speakers
This piece considers key legal and ethical issues involved. Copyright in speech is the first issue. Copyright is an economic right, lasting for the lifetime of an author plus 70 years after the end of the year…
Frequently asked questions
Since 2003, Artquest has been helping artists with their legal problems via our Artlaw service. Individual artists living and working in England can send us a legal query, which we pass to our arts legal specialists Henry…
Monumental Manoeuvres in the Dark
The destruction of a sculpture the Government specifically commissioned and permanently installed on a national site is one of the more outrageous of the issues raised recently. I don’t care How many letters they sent…
Private Commissions and the Law, part 1
The thirteenth year of these columns starts with a re examination of one of the first and most fundamental areas of art practice, private commissions, because it has posed perennial problems, for artists…
Self-Expression and the Law
On Tuesday 25 October 1977 Kerry Trengove was sealed inside a 15ft x 10ft breeze block bunker on the ground floor of the Acme Gallery in Covent Garden. He then dug a 3ft sq. hole to…
What legal issues surround the use of legal tender, i.e. notes and coins, in my artwork?
There are specific rules and criminal penalties for the misuse of monetary notes and coinage, and you should refer to the Royal Mint’s own…
The Artists’ Campaign for Droit de Suite
On 17 May 1993 a unique and important meeting was held to give artists the chance to hear about droit de suite (the visual artist’s resale royalty right) and form their own views…