H.R. 3688: Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011
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H.R. 3688: Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011
112th Congress · introduced 2011-12-15 · Commerce · Latest: Referred to the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet.
federal
Follow this bill, step by step
- Where it came from: introduced 2011-12-15 · official record
- Who proposed it: Rep. Nadler, Jerrold [D-NY-8] · what a sponsor is
- What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
- Where it stands now: Referred to the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
- If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.
Official title
Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011
Plain summary
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.
Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.
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What does this mean? (plain words)
Official text
Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011
Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)
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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes
Officials and money
Sponsor: Rep. Nadler, Jerrold [D-NY-8] · 0 cosponsors
Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.
Sponsor's campaign money: Rep. Nadler, Jerrold [D-NY-8] reported raising $258,402 (2025–2026). Details. Shown for context only; it does not mean any donor supported this bill.
No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.
Words on this page, explained (2)
- Rulemaking
- The process agencies use to write regulations that carry out laws passed by Congress or a legislature. Usually an agency publishes a proposed rule, takes public comments, then publishes a final rule.
- Statute
- A written law passed by a legislature. A statute can be changed by a later law; changing a constitution needs an amendment.
Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)
- Congress.gov
- Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-112hr3688.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/112/hr>
Record fed-us-cong112-hr3688 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong112 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong112