Working for visual artists • Copyright Licensing

Working for visual artists

Get paid when your work is reproduced on the secondary art market. There is no cost to sign up and you maintain 100% ownership of your work.

Negotiating and managing the copyright of your work for commercial or promotional purposes isn’t always easy. Our Auction House Licensing scheme helps you get paid when your art is reproduced in advertising and promotional materials on the secondary art market. We take care of negotiating terms of use, sending quotes and invoices to the organisation using your work, and arrange payment to you.

It's as easy as 1-2-3

1. Register your details

Fill out the registration form here. Next, we’ll get in touch with you with more information, including our Visual Artist Rights Agreement.

2. Sign our Visual Artist Rights Agreement.

We’ll send you our Visual Artist Rights Agreement to sign digitally. There is no cost to sign up, the agreement is non-exclusive, and you maintain 100% ownership of your work. In a nutshell, this agreement grants us permission to arrange and manage licensing on your behalf. We take care of the admin so you can get on with creating.

3. Sign up for MyCopyright

Once you’ve signed our agreement, we’ll prompt you to set up a user profile in our online service MyCopyright. This allows you to manage your account and payments in one secure, easy location.

What is the Auction House Licensing scheme?

Our Auction House Licensing scheme is a blanket scheme that ensures that artists are remunerated when their work is reproduced in advertising and promotional materials on the secondary art market. This scheme aligns New Zealand with over 80 dedicated agencies operating in over 60 countries, including Australia, Canada, the USA and most of Europe. It ensures that auction houses comply with national and international copyright law. When you sign a Visual Artist Rights Agreement, you agree to one clear set of terms. These terms govern every instance of the use of your work by licensed auction houses.

Find out more here.

Auction houses with current licence agreements are: Art+Object, International Art Centre and Webb's.

If you're operating an auction house or are a reseller of art, find out more here.

What's covered under an auction house licence?

What kinds of artwork are covered?

  • Paintings
  • Prints
  • Photographs
  • Drawings
  • Diagrams
  • Engravings
  • Etchings
  • Lithographs
  • Sculptures
  • Collages

When do organisations need a licence?

  • Promotion: if they plan to use an image of an artwork to promote an auction. Including posters, brochures, catalogues or online
  • Advertising: when they are creating advertising that incorporates or even references a work of art
  • Products: when they want to incorporate an artwork into the design of a product that will be sold or used to promote a business

If you're operating an auction house or are a reseller of art, find out more here.

Pricing and charges

We are a not for profit organisation and don't charge artists a membership fee. Instead, we deduct a flat rate of 20% from all licensing transactions, to cover our running costs. The remaining 80% is paid directly to the artist.

MyCopyright makes it easy

MyCopyright opens up a whole new world to manage your copyright. Through this online service you can:

  • activate distribution payments from us
  • keep your account information up to date
  • verify your bank account details securely

If you’re an existing user of MyCopyright and have questions or need support, contact us or download this handy User Guide to get you started.

You're in good hands.

We have been working with New Zealand authors and creatives in the publishing industry for over 25 years and we're excited to be able to offer the same licensing management services to visual artists. Read more about us here.

Do you want to better understand your creative rights?

MyCreativeRights is a cloud-based creative rights management tool that combines two key products to help creative practitioners maximise the value of their works by providing peace of mind in an ever-evolving intellectual property landscape;

  • Catalogue can safely document and store records of creative works, contracts and associated documents.
  • Legal Service offers access to extensive copyright knowledge and subsidised legal assistance.

Ensure your creative works are protected with Legal Service. Access experienced legal advisors specialising in the creative industries, providing reliable legal advice tailored to your specific needs. Whether it is a simple question about copyright, help with a licensing agreement or advice on how to negotiate the terms of a legal contract – we’ve got you covered.

To help you get started, we’re offering FREE 15-minute legal consultations until 30 June 2024 only. Click here for more information.

Working for authors and publishers

Working for authors and publishers

Every day people make copies of printed material for many reasons: education, research, information and business. Often, they do so without approval of the owner of the works being copied. That's where we come in.
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Working for visual artists

Working for visual artists

Get paid when your work is reproduced on the secondary art market. There is no cost to sign up and you maintain 100% ownership of your work.
Learn more
Managing your creative rights

Managing your creative rights

MyCreativeRights is a new online service to help you manage your creative rights
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Distributions and payments

Distributions and payments

​We’re focused on helping owners of creative content earn a living from their work. That's why we make regular distribution payments to authors, publishers and artists.
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Resources

Resources

​Learn more about copyright for creatives
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