I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4017 
To amend title 17, United States Code, to secure the rights of visual artists 
to copyright, to provide for resale royalties, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 17, 2025 
Mr. NADLER (for himself and Ms. CHU) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend title 17, United States Code, to secure the rights 
of visual artists to copyright, to provide for resale royal-
ties, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Royalties 
Too Act of 2025’’. 
SEC. 2. RESALE ROYALTY. 
(a) COLLECTION OF RESALE ROYALTY FOR VISUAL 
ART.—Chapter 1 of title 17, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after section 106A the following: 
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‘‘§ 106B. Collection of resale royalty for visual art 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) ART MARKET PROFESSIONAL.—The term 
‘art market professional’ means a person engaged in 
the business of buying and selling works of visual 
art to the public. 
‘‘(2) AUTHOR’S
SUCCESSOR.—The term ‘au-
thor’s successor’ means an individual who holds the 
right of the author of a work of visual art to the re-
sale royalty after the death of the author as defined 
under subsection (e)(3). 
‘‘(3) COMMERCIAL
RESALE.—The term ‘com-
mercial resale’ means a sale of a resale copy of a 
work of visual art by, or with the intervention of, an 
art market professional, subsequent to the first sale 
of that copy. 
‘‘(4) PRICE.—The term ‘price’ means the ag-
gregate of all payments in cash, credit, or in-kind by 
or on behalf of a purchaser, excluding any fees for 
services rendered by the art market professional in 
connection with such sale. 
‘‘(5) RESALE COPY.—The term ‘resale copy’, 
for the purposes of this section, means the material 
object in which the work of visual art is fixed by or 
under the authority of the author, in a single or lim-
ited edition. 
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‘‘(6) VISUAL
ARTISTS’ 
COLLECTING
SOCI-
ETIES.—The term ‘visual artists’ collecting societies’ 
means entities that have been designated to admin-
ister the resale royalty under this section. 
‘‘(b) COLLECTION GENERALLY.—Independent of the 
exclusive rights provided in section 106, the author of a 
work of visual art shall be entitled to a royalty for the 
commercial resale of a resale copy of the work by a person 
other than the author or the author’s successor for a price 
of $5,000 or more. 
‘‘(c) DURATION.—The entitlement to a resale royalty 
shall subsist simultaneously with and for the duration of 
the term of copyright protection afforded to the work of 
visual art pursuant to chapter 3 of this title. 
‘‘(d) CALCULATION AND PAYMENT OF ROYALTY.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The royalty for the sale of 
a resale copy of a work of visual art under this sec-
tion shall be an amount equal to the lesser of— 
‘‘(A) 5 percent of the price paid for the re-
sale copy of the work of visual art in that sale; 
or 
‘‘(B) $50,000. 
‘‘(2) ADJUSTMENT OF AMOUNT.—In 2022 and 
each year thereafter, the dollar amount described in 
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paragraph (1)(B) shall be increased by an amount 
equal to the product of— 
‘‘(A) that dollar amount; and 
‘‘(B) the cost-of-living adjustment deter-
mined under section 1(f)(3)(A) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 for the year, determined 
by substituting ‘the C–CPI–U for calendar year 
2024’ for ‘the CPI for calendar year 2024’ and 
all that follows in clause (ii) of that section. 
‘‘(e) COLLECTION AND PAYMENT OF ROYALTY.— 
‘‘(1) COLLECTION.—Not later than 90 days 
after the date of the final payment for the purchase 
of the resale copy of the work of visual art, the art 
market professional shall pay the resale royalty cal-
culated under subsection (d) to such visual artists’ 
collecting societies as are designated by the Register 
of Copyrights under subsection (i). 
‘‘(2) DISTRIBUTION.—Not fewer than four 
times each year at quarterly intervals, any visual 
artists’ collecting society to which payments are 
made under paragraph (1) shall distribute to the au-
thor or the author’s successor as copyright owner in 
an amount equal to the difference between— 
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‘‘(A) all royalties attributable to the sales 
of resale copies of works of visual art by the au-
thor; and 
‘‘(B) the reasonable administrative ex-
penses of the collecting society as determined 
by regulations issued under subsection (i). 
‘‘(3) SUCCESSORS.—In a case in which an au-
thor is dead, the right of that author to the resale 
royalty shall transfer as bequeathed by will. In the 
absence of a will, the right shall be apportioned as 
follows: 
‘‘(A) The widow or widower is entitled to 
the entire royalty of the author unless there are 
any surviving children or grandchildren of the 
author, in which case the widow or widower is 
entitled to one-half of the author’s royalty. 
‘‘(B) Any surviving child of the author, 
and any surviving child of any dead child of the 
author, is entitled to the royalty of the author 
in accordance with this section as follows: 
‘‘(i) A single surviving child of the au-
thor or single surviving grandchild that is 
the child of a deceased child of the author 
is entitled to the entire royalty of the au-
thor if there is no surviving spouse. 
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‘‘(B) TRANSFER.—If the author or the au-
thor’s successor is not located during the 3-year 
period beginning on the date on which the sale 
of the resale copy of the work of visual art cov-
ered under this section occurs, the amount that 
would have been distributed to the author or 
the author’s successor under paragraph (2) 
shall be transferred to the Copyright Office for 
the purposes of developing and conducting pro-
grams and educational initiatives in support of 
artists in the United States. Distribution of 
funds under this subparagraph satisfies the ob-
ligations of the visual artists’ collecting society 
under this subsection with respect to those 
funds. 
‘‘(5) ADMINISTRATION.—Visual artists’ col-
lecting societies shall administer all amounts col-
lected under this subsection in accordance with gen-
erally accepted accounting principles. 
‘‘(f) FAILURE TO PAY OR DISTRIBUTE ROYALTY.— 
‘‘(1) RIGHT OF ACTION.— 
‘‘(A) If an art market professional fails to 
pay a royalty in accordance with subsection (e) 
to a visual artists’ collecting society designated 
by the Register of Copyrights, such a society, 
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either by itself or jointly with any other such 
society, may bring an action in a district court 
of the United States to recover an amount 
equal to the amount of the royalty and attor-
ney’s fees but if no such society exercises this 
right within one year from the date payment is 
due, the author or author’s successors may 
within three years from the date payment is 
due bring an action in a district court of the 
United States to recover an amount equal to 
three times the amount of the royalty and at-
torney’s fees. 
‘‘(B) If a visual artists’ collecting society 
to which a royalty payment is made under sec-
tion (e)(1) fails to distribute the royalty in ac-
cordance with subsection (e)(2) or (3), the au-
thor or author’s successors may within three 
years from the date the society received the roy-
alty payment bring an action in a district court 
of the United States to recover an amount 
equal to three times the amount of the royalty 
and attorney’s fees. 
‘‘(2) COLLECTING
SOCIETIES.—With the per-
mission of the person to whom the resale royalty is 
due under paragraph (1), visual artists’ collecting 
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societies may bring a suit on that person’s behalf 
under this subsection. 
‘‘(3) EXCLUSIVE
REMEDIES.—The remedies 
provided under this subsection shall be the exclusive 
remedies for a failure to pay or distribute a royalty 
in accordance with subsection (e). 
‘‘(g) NO TRANSFERS.—The entitlement to a royalty 
under this section may not be sold, assigned, or otherwise 
transferred or waived. 
‘‘(h) ELIGIBILITY
TO
RECEIVE
ROYALTY
PAY-
MENT.—Any visual artists’ collecting society that collects 
a royalty under this section for the sale of a resale copy 
of a work of visual art shall distribute the royalty to— 
‘‘(1) any author of the work of visual art— 
‘‘(A) who is a citizen of or domiciled in the 
United States; 
‘‘(B) who is a citizen of or domiciled in a 
country that provides a royalty for the resale of 
a resale copy of a work of visual art; or 
‘‘(C) whose work of visual art is first cre-
ated in the United States or in a country that 
provides a royalty for the resale of a copy of a 
work of visual art; or 
‘‘(2) the successor of an author described in 
paragraph (1). 
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‘‘(i) REGULATIONS.—The Register of Copyrights may 
conduct such proceedings and adopt such regulations as 
necessary or appropriate to effectuate the provisions of 
this section, including to— 
‘‘(1) establish a process by which entities are 
designated as a visual artists’ collecting societies au-
thorized to administer royalty collections and dis-
tributions under this section, which process shall re-
quire such entities to— 
‘‘(A) have experience in licensing the copy-
rights of authors of works of visual art in the 
United States; or 
‘‘(B) have experience in collecting, main-
taining, and distributing monies on behalf of 
artists in accordance with generally accepted 
accounting principles; 
‘‘(2) determine the reasonable administrative 
expenses that the visual artists’ collecting societies 
may deduct from the royalties payable under sub-
section (e)(2)(B); 
‘‘(3) establish a process by which— 
‘‘(A) visual artists’ collecting societies may 
obtain from any art market professional the 
sale price, date of sale, and other such informa-
tion as the Register of Copyrights deems appro-
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priate, for each sale of a resale copy of a work 
of visual art covered by this section; and 
‘‘(B) an author of a work of visual art or, 
if the author is dead, the author’s successor 
may obtain from visual artists’ collecting soci-
eties any information in the possession of the 
collecting societies, including the information 
obtained under clause (A) and the amount of 
any royalty paid to the collecting societies, that 
relates to a sale of any resale copies of such au-
thor’s work; and 
‘‘(4) establish a process by which the visual art-
ists’ collecting societies may lose their designation as 
such if, in the judgment of the Register, the entity 
fails to substantially carry out the duties of a visual 
artist’s collecting society or fails to comply with the 
appropriate standards of conduct under this section 
or any applicable regulations adopted by the Reg-
ister. 
‘‘(j) CLOSEST ALTERNATIVE DESIGNATION.—If the 
Register is unable to identify an entity that fulfills each 
of the qualifications set forth in clauses (A) through (B) 
in section (i)(1), or if an entity is identified and the Reg-
ister finds cause not to designate such entity, the Register 
may designate any entity that most nearly fulfills such 
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qualifications for purposes of carrying out the responsibil-
ities of the visual artists’ collecting societies and for which 
the Register does not find cause not to designate. If the 
Register judges that no entity nearly fulfills the qualifica-
tions for the purposes of carrying out the responsibilities 
of the visual artists’ collecting societies, then the Register 
may promulgate regulations for an alternative method for 
collecting and distributing resale royalties.’’. 
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 
The table of sections for chapter 1 of title 17, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat-
ing to section 106A the following: 
‘‘106B. Collection of resale royalty for visual art.’’. 
SEC. 3. NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT. 
Section 401 of title 17, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(e) NON-APPLICABILITY
TO WORKS
OF VISUAL 
ART.—The provisions of this section shall not apply to a 
work of visual art.’’. 
SEC. 4. STUDY REQUIRED. 
Not later than 5 years after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Register of Copyrights shall conduct 
a study on the implementation of this Act and submit to 
the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the 
Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representa-
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