UK government delays extension of resale royalty right

The UK Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) reports that the UK government has decided to delay the implementation of the artists’ resale right scheme for artists’ heirs and beneficiaries. DACS claims that the decision rejects a socially just policy without justification and is a betrayal of artists.

The scheme in place in the UK since 2006 has paid £7.5 million in royalties on the sale of works to 1,500 living artists. Under EU rules, the government had until the end of 2008 to decide whether to implement the right for artists’ heirs and beneficiaries to receive royalties from 2010 or to delay that for a further two years until 2012.

DACS states that the government’s decision ignores 90% of respondents to the government consultation who favoured the implementation of the right without delay, that it runs contrary to the government’s proclaimed “fairness” agenda, and that it disregards evidence that the right does not damage business.

Joanna Cave, chief executive of DACS, is quoted as saying, “I am devastated for all the artists and their families who believed the Government’s empty words about championing the arts. This irrational decision is a betrayal of the artist community and a rejection of the mountain of evidence.”

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UK Design and Copyright Society (DACS) 

UK Intellectual Property Office press release