On May 29, 2013, Bill C-516 was introduced as a
private member’s bill in the House of Commons. The bill seeks
to amend the Copyright Act to
provide creators of certain works with royalties payable upon
resale of their work.
The proposed legislation sets the resale royalty at 5% of the
sale price of any work that is re-sold for $500 or more after the
first transfer of ownership by the artist. The resale right
would apply to “an artistic work, including a painting,
sculpture, collage, print, lithograph, tapestry and a ceramic or
glassware item”, but would not include maps, charts, plans,
photographs or architectural works, or a copy of an artistic work,
unless the copy is one of a limited number that had been made by
the author or with the artist’s authorization.
Therefore, the scope of work which would attract the resale
right is narrower than the scope of “artistic work” as
currently defined in the Copyright Act.
