UCLA Entertainment Law Review

The artist's resale royalty right, commonly called the droit de suite,

has proven politically popular in a diverse range of countries. Since

France first codified the right into law in 1920, at least fifty countries

have followed suit. To date, the United States, with the exception of

California, has been notably absent from this picture. But a federal

resale royalty law is now on the horizon for American artists. In

December 2011, delegates in both the U.S. House of Representatives

and the U.S. Senate introduced the Equity for Visual Artists Act of

2011 (EVAA), a bill which would amend the existing copyright law to

include a resale royalty provision.

This Article evaluates whether Congress should adopt the EVAA,

or some other variation of the resale royalty right, and provides

guidance to lawmakers in considering such legislation. Specifically,

this Article points out that an informational deficit, which it terms the

information problem, looms over the resale royalty right. Scholars and

lawmakers must have access to information about sales of artwork in

order to evaluate the effect and efficacy of the right in practice.

Likewise, the structure of the right requires that various parties have

access to information about sales in order to carry out the requirements

of resale royalty laws. However, secrecy norms pervade the art

market, especially in the United States, making such information

difficult, if not impossible, to come by. This Article considers several

possibilities for how federal lawmakers might overcome, or at least

minimize, this information problem, and concludes that the most

promising scheme would be one that requires parties to disclose

relevant information through a registration system.