What can an artist do if they don’t want to accept a royalty?

What can an artist do if they don’t want to accept a royalty?

How to decline payment (s 19 the Act, & clause 12 the Regulations) 

A right holder may opt to decline to receive:  

  1. payment of all or part of a resale royalty; and / or  
  1. payment of a resale royalty on the future resale of any or all of their visual artworks.    

They do this by giving written notice to RRA (the collection agency).   

This doesn’t mean they lose their resale right.  It simply means they are opting to decline to receive payment of all or part of a resale royalty/ies. 

Opting back in for future resales (s 19(3) the Act, & clause 13 the Regulations) 

If the right holder has declined payment of a resale royalty on future resales, they may nevertheless opt back in to receive payments on future resales of any or all artworks previously declined.  They do this by giving written notice to the collection agency.   

What happens to the declined royalty? (clause 14 the Regulations) 

If a right holder declines to receive payment of any amount of a resale royalty, RRA must:  

  • transfer the amount to a cultural fund established under the Act; 
  • if there is no cultural fund established, return the amount to the person who paid the resale royalty under the Act; 
  • if there is no cultural fund, and the person who paid the royalty cannot be found, use the amount to fund the activities of the collection agency under the Act. 

Can I get rid of, or repay, or sell, or share my resale right? 

For artists: An artist cannot ‘alienate’ their royalty right during their lifetime (s 13).  This means an artist cannot lose, sell, license, assign, charge, or waive their resale right during their lifetime, and any agreement to do so is void (s 13(2)).   

For successors:  A successor may transfer the resale rights they hold to another person, as personal property, by (a) assignment; or (b) testamentary disposition; or (c) operation of law (s 14(2)). 

For both: Any agreement to repay the resale royalty is void (s 17), as is any agreement to share the royalty, except where the Act provides that a royalty can be held in shares e.g. where there are joint artists (s 12), or multiple successors (s 14(4)). 

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