American Royalties Too Act of 2025

The American Royalties Too Act of 2025 would create a new resale royalty on the commercial resale of visual artworks. The author (or the author's successor) would be entitled to a royalty when a resale copy of a work is sold for $5,000 or more by or through an art market professional. The royalty would be the lesser of 5% of the resale price or $50,000 (adjusted annually for inflation). The royalty would last for the duration of the copyright term and would be collected by designated visual artists’ collecting societies, overseen by the Register of Copyrights. Royalties would be distributed to the author or their successor on a quarterly basis, with specific rules for heirs, joint authors, unclaimed royalties, and administration. The bill also sets up regulations and processes for designating collecting societies, requires a study after five years, and provides an effective date one year after enactment. In addition to creating the resale royalty, the bill inserts related administrative and enforcement provisions (e.g., penalties for nonpayment or misdistribution, restrictions on transferring the royalty right, eligibility rules for recipients, and data-access provisions for sales information). It also clarifies that visual artworks are not subject to certain copyright notice requirements and directs a future study on implementation.