Course - Copyright for artists

An understanding of the rudiments of copyright law and its applications for creators is important to any professional artist, whether they are selling original work or dealing with reproduction rights. This course covered the shifting, evolving and often confusing legal issues involved in the business of being an artist who makes and sells original artworks including how to protect intellectual property rights including exclusive rights to reproduce, publish, disseminate, and merchandise their artworks or other versions derived from them. Participants learned about the legal starting points of copyright ownership of original artworks made during the course of employment, and when and where the employer is given copyright ownership. In this context, participants learned how to make contractual agreements such an assignment, transfer and exclusive/non-exclusive licence and learned about the sale of copyright.

Commentary & further reading:
Daniel McClean, 27 April 2015, Who Owns Images?, Frieze Magazine
Cultural Enterprise Office, 1 November 2018, Intellectual Property
Anny Shaw, 25 April 2019, EU Copyright Crackdown..., The Art Newspaper
Zachery Small, 2 April 2019, What the EU's New Copyright Law Means for Artists, Hyperallergic
Benjamin Sutton, 31 January 2018, Artists Learn About Appropriation..., Hyperallergic
GOV.UK, How Copyright Protects Your Work

This course was delivered by the National Union of Journalists for the Scottish Artists' Union.