Visual Artists Rights Act ('VARA') and the Protection of Digital Works of 'Photographic' Art

22 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2020

See all articles by Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons

Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons

University of Toledo - College of Law; Fellow, Intellectual Property Rights Center

Date Written: October 2, 2010

Abstract

This article will analyze whether a completely digital work of visual art meets the first element of the VARA test, that it is “painting, drawing, print, or sculpture[,]” or “a still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only,” and not a “motion picture or other audiovisual work.” Second, this article will evaluate whether digital works can realistically meet VARA’s requirement that such works be a limited edition of fewer than 200 copies, individually signed and consecutively numbered by the artist. This article will then conclude that the language of VARA is sufficiently expansive to protect some digital works of photographic art. However, as digital photographic works move away from the chemical and photographic paper model of the past towards newer forms of digital art, courts will find it increasingly difficult to protect newer forms of digital photographic art unless Congress amends VARA to be medium neutral.

Keywords: Moral Rights, VARA, Visual Artist Rights Act, Digital Art, Copyright, 106A

JEL Classification: Z10

Suggested Citation

Gibbons, Llewellyn Joseph, Visual Artists Rights Act ('VARA') and the Protection of Digital Works of 'Photographic' Art (October 2, 2010). North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology, Vol. 11, No. 3, p. 531, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1686386

Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons (Contact Author)

University of Toledo - College of Law ( email )

2801 W. Bancroft Street
Toledo, OH 43606
United States
419-530-4175 (Phone)
419-530-7878 (Fax)

Fellow, Intellectual Property Rights Center ( email )

No.143, Wuluo Road
Wuhan, Hubei 430073
China

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
204
Abstract Views
1,354
Rank
269,874
PlumX Metrics