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About royalties

The other argument is powerful, the just remuneration for a work. It even seems just that royalties be considered as a heritable patrimony, just like any other patrimonial property. The question is to whom do these rights and the laws that sustain them belong? Whose royalties are they?

To answer this question it is necessary to avoid simplifications or populist generalizations that sustain that culture is patrimony of society at large and should therefore be free and accessible to all. It is not adequate that the State ensure continuity of artistic work sustaining artists with benefits or buying works to facilitate access to them, be they visual, musical or of any order. This formula has been put to the test with bad results; artistic production is quickly subjected to the bureaucratic or even propagandistic criteria of those in power. Even when, fortunately, in those societies where it has been used massively (USSR, USA, Holland among others) there have been artists who have been able to exceed the bureaucratic norms and restrictions and managed to produce with independence and creativity.

The issue of royalties is a burning one nowadays. A little while ago a Madrilenian writer, Javier Marías, wrote that they have to be taken care of for two main reasons. The first one is because it is fair that an author’s work be adequately remunerated and not be appropriated by someone else. The second is that without the protection and shelter of royalties many artists would stop producing, with serious consequences for culture. The second argument has no grounds; as we don’t know the future we refer to past experience: there have always been artists who have devoted themselves to art, plunged in total uncertainty, there have always been artists who have not lived off their art for the larger part of their lives and who have managed to keep on producing. Examples are plenty and more than known. Moreover, anyone who chooses an artistic profession is conscious of his precarious situation. There is no need then, to fear a dangerous decrease in quantity and quality or art works.