Visual Artists Rights Act ('VARA') and the Protection of Digital Works of 'Photographic' Art
22 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2020
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: Suggested Citation