Know Your Copyrights
Copyright is the exclusive legal right to produce, reproduce, publish, or perform an original literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical work.
It gives you control over the value of your work: how it is used, by whom, and on what terms.
According to the Canadian Copyright Act, a visual artist is an Author of Artistic Works.
An artistic work includes paintings, drawings, maps, charts, plans, photographs, engravings, sculptures, works of artistic craftsmanship, architectural works, and compilations of artistic works.
Generally, the creator or author of an artwork is the first owner of copyright (with some exceptions), and an artist’s original work is automatically protected once it is created. Your copyright exists in Canada during your lifetime and for 70 years following your death (with some exceptions).
You can choose to register your copyright through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, but it is not required in Canada.
The two most important economic rights for visual artists in the Copyright Act are the exhibition right and the reproduction right.
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Canada is one of the few countries that have incorporated an exhibition right into our Copyright Act. The exhibition right applies to public exhibitions of artistic works created after June 7, 1988. It entitles visual artists to receive payment when their work is exhibited in a public exhibition, for a purpose other than sale or hire.
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The reproduction right in the Copyright Act gives the artist or copyright holder the sole right to reproduce an artwork, and royalties apply when your work is reproduced in a variety of ways, including audio-visual, digital, and print reproductions.
We provide minimum payment guidelines for exhibition and reproduction royalty payments in the CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule.
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Moral rights are the reflection of your personality in your work. Artists always retain moral rights. They may be waived but they cannot be assigned to someone else. Moral rights include:
The right to protect your artwork against distortion, alteration, or mutilation in a way which prejudices your reputation;
The right to associate your name as the author of your work or remain anonymous if you choose and
The right to protect your visual image from association with a cause, a product, service, or institution to which you are personally opposed.