The Artist's Other Rights: Moral Rights, VARA, and Attribution in American Law
By Casey Scott McKay ·
American copyright law protects the economic rights of authors comprehensively and their personal rights barely at all - and the narrow statute that does protect them, the Visual Artists Rights Act, is one of the most misunderstood provisions in Title 17. This article explains what VARA actually covers, which is a small category of paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and exhibition photographs in single copies or limited editions of 200 or fewer, and why nearly every work a client asks about falls outside it. It works through the two rights the statute grants, the recognized-stature requirement that a jury applied to a warehouse covered in aerosol art with a $6.75 million result, and the building-removal provisions that give a property owner a path and a deadline. It covers what a valid waiver requires, why the work-made-for-hire exclusion swallows most commissioned work, and why the Lanham Act attribution route closed in 2003.
IP and Technology > Copyright | Article | Published 2 June 2025 - Updated 3 December 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. American copyright law protects the economic rights of authors comprehensively and their personal rights barely at all — and the narrow statute that does protect them, the Visual Artists Rights Act, is one of the most misunderstood provisions in Title 17. This article explains what VARA actually covers, which is a small category of paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and exhibition photographs in single copies or limited editions of 200 or fewer, and why nearly every work a client asks about falls outside it. It works through the two rights the statute grants, the recognized-stature requirement that a jury applied to a warehouse covered in aerosol art with a $6.75 million result, and the building-removal provisions that give a property owner a path and a deadline. It covers what a valid waiver requires, why the work-made-for-hire exclusion swallows most commissioned work, and why the Lanham Act attribution route closed in 2003.
Keywords: visual artists rights act · section 106a · work of visual art definition · right of attribution · right of integrity · recognized stature · 5pointz castillo · carter v helmsley-spear · kelley v chicago park district · phillips site-specific art · buchel unfinished work · section 113(d) building removal · ninety-day notice · visual arts registry · vara waiver requirements · work made for hire exclusion · dastar attribution · california art preservation act · berne article 6bis · resale royalty preemption
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