2013 Rhode Island General Laws
Title 5 - Businesses and Professions
Chapter 5-62 - Works of Art – Artists' Rights
Section 5-62-2 - Definitions.

§ 5-62-2 Definitions. – Whenever used in this chapter except where the context clearly requires, the terms listed below have the following meanings:

(1) "Artist" means the creator of a work of fine art or, in the case of multiples, the person who conceived or created the image, which is contained in or which constitutes the master from which the individual print was made;

(2) "Art merchant" means a person who is in the business of dealing, exclusively or non-exclusively, in works of fine art or multiples, or a person who by his or her occupation holds himself or herself out as having knowledge or skill peculiar to those works, or to whom that knowledge or skill may be attributed by his or her employment of an agent or other intermediary who by his or her occupation holds himself or herself out as having that knowledge or skill. The term "art merchant" includes an auctioneer who sells art works at public auction, and except in the case of multiples, includes persons, not otherwise defined or treated as art merchants in this section, who are consignors or principals of auctioneers;

(3) "Author" or "authorship" refers to the creator of a work of fine art or multiple or to the period, culture, source or origin, as the case may be, with which the creation of that work is identified in the description of the work;

(4) "Certificate of authenticity" means a written statement by an art merchant confirming, approving or attesting to the authorship of a work of fine art or multiple, which is capable of being used to the advantage or disadvantage of some person;

(5) "Conservation" means acts taken to correct deterioration and alteration and acts taken to prevent, stop, or retard deterioration;

(6) "Counterfeit" means a work of fine art or multiple made, altered or copied, with or without intent to deceive, in any manner that it appears or is claimed to have an authorship which it does not in fact possess;

(7) "Craft" means a functional or non-functional work individually designed, and crafted by hand, in any medium including, but not limited to, textile, tile, paper, clay, glass, fiber, wood, metal or plastic; provided, that if produced in multiples, craft does not include works mass produced or produced in other than a limited edition;

(8) "Creditors" means "creditor" as defined in the Uniform Commercial Code, § 6A-1-201(12);

(9) "Limited edition" means works of art produced from a master, all of which are the same image and bear numbers or other markings to denote the limited production of the work to a stated maximum number of multiples, or are otherwise held out as limited to a maximum number of multiples;

(10 ) "Master", when used alone, is used in lieu of and means the same as such things as printing plate, stone, block, screen, photographic negative or other like material which contains an image used to produce visual art objects in multiples, or in the case of sculptures, a mold, model, cast, form or other prototype, other than from glass, which additional multiples of sculpture are produced, fabricated or carved;

(11) "On consignment" means that no title to, estate in, or right to possession of, the work of fine art or multiple that is superior to that of the cosigner vests in the cosignee, notwithstanding the cosignee's power or authority to transfer or convey all the right, title and interest of the cosignor, in and to such work, to a third person;

(12) "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other group, however organized;

(13) "Print" in addition to meaning a multiple produced by, but not limited to, such processes as engraving, etching, woodcutting, lithography and serigraphy, also means multiples produced or developed from photographic negatives, or any combination of these processes;

(14) "Proofs" means multiples which are the same as, and which are produced from the same masters as, the multiples in a limited edition, but which, whether so designated or not, are set aside from and are in addition to the limited edition to which they relate;

(15) "Reproduction" means a copy, in any medium, of a work of fine art, that is displayed or published under circumstances that, reasonably construed, evinces an intent that it be taken as a representation of a work of fine art as created by the artist;

(16) "Reproduction right" means a right to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, distribute copies of, publicly perform or publicly display a work of fine art;

(17) "Sculpture" means a three-dimensional fine art object produced, fabricated or carved in multiple from a mold, model, cast, form or other prototype, other than from glass, sold, offered for sale or consigned in, into or from this state for an amount in excess of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500);

(18) "Signed" means autographed by the artist's own hand, and not by mechanical means of reproduction, after the multiple was produced, whether or not the master was signed or unsigned;

(19) "Visual art multiples" or "multiples" means prints, photographs, positive or negative, sculpture and similar art objects produced in more than one copy and sold, offered for sale or consigned in, into or from this state for an amount in excess of one hundred dollars ($100) exclusive of any frame or in the case of sculpture, an amount in excess of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). Pages or sheets taken from books and magazines and offered for sale or sold as visual art objects shall be included, but books and magazines are excluded;

(20) "Work of fine art" means any original work of visual or graphic art of any medium which includes, but is not limited to, the following: painting; drawing; print; photographic print or sculpture of a limited edition of no more than three hundred (300) copies; provided, that "work of fine art" does not include sequential imagery such as that in motion pictures;

(21) "Written instrument" means a written or printed agreement, bill of sale, invoice, certificate of authenticity, catalogue or any other written or printed note or memorandum or label describing the work of fine art or multiple which is to be sold, exchanged or cosigned by an art merchant.

History of Section.
(P.L. 1987, ch. 566, § 1; P.L. 2000, ch. 429, § 1.)