Rights Reserved

We are instituting a campaign whose objective is the artist's right to benefit from the reproduction and distribution of copies of his work. These rights in time must be given legal recognition; but pending their establishment by the process of the law, we intend to make these rights effective by establishing them as common custom.

To this manifesto last week were fixed the names of eight greater and lesser U. S. artists: Alfred Stieglitz, Alexander Brook, William Gropper, John Marin, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, John Sloan. Ever since copyright laws have been in existence it has been possible for artists or owners of pictures to copyright them, prevent their reproduction without due authority. Explaining last week's manifesto, grey-haired Spokesman John Sloan, famed painter of New York street scenes, longtime president of the Society of Independent Artists, pointed out that what he and his distinguished friends and their recently engaged legal counsel were aiming at was not a new copyright law, but an amendment of the present copyright law to give artists the same protection that authors and playwrights now have. This would make it impossible for an owner to reproduce a picture without the artist's specific consent.

According to the present law, though a publisher must consult the author before reprinting a book and a playwright has legal right to a reasonably careful production, the owner of a picture can reproduce it in any form he chooses unless the reproduction rights have been specifically reserved. As Spokesman Sloan pointed out last week, a 10-c- reprint of a popular novel will not affect the author's reputation; a poor reproduction of a painting, for those who are not familiar with the artist's original work, may be disastrous.

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