Artists Rights Society

Artists Rights Society (ARS) is a copyright, licensing, and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States. Founded in 1987, ARS represents the intellectual property rights interests of over 50,000 visual artists and estates of visual artists from around the world (painters, sculptors, photographers, architects and others).

Member Artists & Estates

The long list of the artists represented by ARS includes such names as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Joseph Beuys, Pierre Bonnard, Constantin Brancusi, Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Rene Magritte, Joan Miró, Edvard Munch, Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Georgia O'Keeffe, among many others. [http://arsny.com/requested.html Artists Rights Society's List of Most Frequently Requested Artists] ] In addition to Estates, ARS represents many living artists, including Damien Hirst, Judy Chicago, Jenny Holzer, Robert Morris, Richard Serra, Hans Haacke, Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Robert Irwin, Brice Marden, Dorothea Rockburne and Bruce Nauman, among others. [http://www.arsny.com/complete.html Artists Rights Society's Complete List of Artists Represented] ]

Infringement and Advocacy

In 2002 and 2006, ARS asked Google to remove customised versions of its logo put up to commemorate artists Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró, alleging that portions of specific artworks under their protection had been used in the logos, and that they were utilized without permission. According to Theodore Feder, president of ARS, "there are underlying copyrights to the works of Miró, and they are putting it up without having the rights." [http://www.siliconbeat.com/entries/2006/04/20/google_takes_down_miro_image.html "Google takes down Miro image." "Silicon Beat" April 20, 2006] ] Google complied with the request, but denied that there was any violation of copyright. In 2008, ARS and Google worked together to produce a customized version of its logo to commemorate the artist, Marc Chagall. The customized logo appeared with permission of ARS and the Estate of Marc Chagall on July 8, 2008, to celebrate what would have been Chagall's 121st birthday. [http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html Google.com: More Google Logos] ]

In June 2008, ARS president Theodore Feder worked with artist Frank Stella to create an Op-Ed for the "The Art Newspaper" decrying a proposed U.S. orphan works law. In it, Stella wrote,

In July 2008, ARS worked with the Illustrator's Partnership of America (IPA) and the Advertising Photographers of America (APA) to submit to congress a document titled, " [http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/2008/07/hr-5889-amendments.html Suggested Amendments to H.R. 5889: Orphan Words Act of 2008] ." [http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/2008/07/hr-5889-amendments.html Illustrators' Partnership Orphan Works Blog: "H.R. 5889 Amendments" June 11, 2008] ] The document outlined 12 admendments which the ARS, IPA and APA believe will decrease the potential negative impact of the Orphan Works Act and discourage "wide-scale infringements of visual art while depriving creators of protections currently available under the Copyright Act." [http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ Orphan Works Legislative Action Center] ] ARS has joined over 60 other art licensing businesses (including the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Stock Artists Alliance, among others) in opposing both [http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/bills/?billid=11320236 The Orphan Works Act of 2008] and [http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/bills/?billid=11322171 The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008] .

References

External links

* [http://www.arsny.com/index.html Official ARS web site]