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HR 3688 112th Congress House

Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011

Official title: To amend the copyright law to secure the rights of artists of works of visual art to provide for royalties, and for other purposes.

Introduced: December 15, 2011 Introduced by: Nadler, Jerrold Democratic · New York See on congress.gov
Commerce Administrative law and regulatory proceduresArt, artists, authorshipIntellectual propertyLibrary of CongressUser charges and fees
This bill died when the 112th Congress ended
It never became law before the 112th Congress (2011–2012) adjourned, and bills don't carry over to the next Congress. It would have to be reintroduced. You can still save it for reference, but it won't receive updates.
 Everywhere this bill has been 3 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Jan 6, 2012
Referred to the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet.
Dec 15, 2011
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Dec 15, 2011
Introduced in House
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 Latest action January 6, 2012

Referred to the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011 - Requires, whenever a work of visual art is sold for at least $10,000 at an auction by someone other than the authoring artist, that the entity collecting the money or other consideration pay a royalty equal to 7% of the price to a visual artists' collecting society.

Defines an "auction" as public sale run by an entity that: (1) sells to the highest bidder works of visual art in which the cumulative amount of such works sold during the previous year is over $25 million, and (2) does not solely conduct the sale of such visual art on the Internet.

Requires the collecting society to: (1) distribute half of the net royalty to the artist or their successor as copyright owner, and (2) deposit the other half into an escrow account to fund purchases by U.S. nonprofit art museums of works of visual art authored by living artists domiciled in the United States.

Establishes a copyright infringement offense for the failure of the entity collecting the money or other consideration to pay such a royalty. Subjects an infringer to the payment of statutory damages.

Excludes works of visual art from copyright notice procedures.

Directs the Register of Copyrights to issue regulations governing the designation and oversight of visual artists' collecting societies.

Requires that specified fees be paid to the Register out of the total royalty payments received by collecting societies.

 Related & companion bills 1
 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 2
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 3688: Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011. 112th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/112-HR-3688/
MLA
"H.R. 3688: Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011." 112th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/112-HR-3688/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 3688, 112th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/112-HR-3688/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 3688: Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011](https://openamerica.io/bill/112-HR-3688/)
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