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Attention: Jennifer Miller
Director General,
Marketplace Framework Policy Branch
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
jennifer.miller@canada.ca
Attention: Owen Ripley
Director General,
Broadcasting, Copyright and Creative Marketplace Branch
Canadian Heritage
thomasowen.ripley@canada.ca
June 10, 2021
Dear Ms. Miller & Mr. Ripley
The Art Dealer's Association of Canada (ADAC) is writing to make the following submission regarding the Government of Canada’s Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries. ADAC is a non-profit organization founded in 1966 and is the largest association of art dealers in Canada. Our members are small and sometimes owner-operated businesses that are among the foremost promoters of Canadian culture, and we are also important employers in the fine arts industry.
ADAC supports the initiative of updated copyright legislation. However, in order for Canada to develop a flourishing online market for its art and artists, Canadian fine art dealers who market and transact works of art must be able to do so unencumbered by copyright legislation that could prohibit them from showcasing their inventories to the online audience of buyers.
Art gallery business websites are the art gallery walls of the digital era, allowing Canadian art dealers to promote Canadian culture globally and to greater effect all over Canada. Some elements of the Consultation paper on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries, if included in future legislation, would harm the Canadian art market by threatening to make art dealers seek permissions and pay fees just to showcase images of the works of art they are offering for sale. The effect of this would be similar to the effect of requiring other retailers and resellers to pay a fee to showcase online images of any other object they might sell, including cars, houses or even items such as used books. These additional costs in administration and money will raise the cost of running retail fine art businesses, discouraging competition and reducing venues which seek to promote Canadian culture. It will also negatively impact employment in the fine arts sector. Additionally, it will negatively impact artists whose primary source of income is the sale of their work, not copyright licensing. In other words, some of the provisions would harm those whose interests it was designed to protect.
In order to protect small, independent fine art dealing businesses and the artists they represent, we urge the Government to include a simple exemption in any and all future Copyright legislation:
- An exemption to new copyright legislation exists for professional art dealers and art gallerists who, by way of displaying images and representations of artwork online, are showcasing the specific objects they are trying to sell, or which their businesses have sold.
The above exception allows artists to retain the important aspects of controlled copyright, such as the discretionary right to have and license the manufacture of reproductions. It also allows them to retain control over who might use their images to promote another product, and when. But it also allows Canadian art dealers to market the specific objects they need to sell in order to make a living, to continue to promote Canadian culture, to generate employment in the arts sector, and to ensure the thriving online market the Government wishes to encourage.
It is critical to recognize that for fine art market participants such as painters, sculptors, manufacturers of other forms of retail art, as well as fine art dealers, their income is derived primarily from the sale of objects, not through the licensing and distribution of reproductions. (This differentiates our industry substantially from other art industries like music and video recording.) It is both logical and similarly important to understand that, in our field, copyrights are effectively irrelevant to those artists whose works are neither widely known nor sought after. The promotion of artwork and artists by art dealers is essential to enhancing the reputations of those artists, and this is what later allows the artists to benefit from copyright income. (We would note that dealers do not benefit when, later, the artists capitalize on their enhanced reputations by licensing copyrights, even though those dealers play a significant role in creating those enhanced reputations.)
As the largest association of art dealers in Canada, it is our opinion that the business of transacting and promoting artwork in Canada cannot flourish with legislation which makes it more difficult, more costly, or even impossible for businesses to showcase their merchandise. We are confident that the exception we are proposing is reasonable and would be of benefit to all stakeholders in our fine art market. We would look forward to a continued dialogue with the goals of protecting artists rights, and to avoid substantial damage to the art market.
Sincerely,
Emma Roberts
Executive Director
Art Dealers Association of Canada