Artists Rights Under VARA and CAPA and the Twitchell Experience

June 24, 2009, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

With William J. Brutocao, Esq.

DESCRIPTION: In 1980 California passed the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA), the first law in this country providing some moral rights to artists. In 1990 the United States passed the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), which grant American artists some moral rights, most importantly the right of attribution and the right to prevent mutilation, distortion or destruction of qualifying works. VARA and CAPA were pivotal in the lawsuit by Kent Twitchell against the United States and 12 other defendants for the desecration of his renowned mural of Ed Ruscha. We settled Twitchell's case for over $1 million. Not everyone can expect similar results, but artists should be aware of their rights under VARA and CAPA, how to protect those rights, and what to do when one of their works has been damaged or destroyed.

SPEAKER:  William J. Brutocao is the head of the Litigation Department for Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson. He has wide-ranging litigation experience in numerous areas of the law and has concentrated his efforts in intellectual property litigation for approximately 15 years. Mr. Brutocao has a liberal arts background and excels at making complex legal issues, including patent matters, understandable to non-technical persons, such as a judge or jury that would be expected to resolve such issues. Due to his broad-based experience, he is the firm’s foremost analyst and strategist with respect to all types of litigation matters. Mr. Brutocao is an adjunct professor in the subject of intellectual property law at the University of La Verne College of Law. Since 2000, he has been the Chief Consulting Editor for California Intellectual Property Laws, published by Matthew Bender®. Mr. Brutocao graduated from University of California, Hastings College of Law. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Pasadena Bar Association.  He served as the lead trial attorney for Twitchell.

 

WHEN:  June 24, 2009, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

ADMISSION:  General Admission: $20, Members of CLA and Co-sponsoring organizations: $10, Senior Citizens and Students: $5

REGISTRATION:  Call CLA at (310) 998-5590, or email us (please include your contact info and specify the workshop date(s)) at: clasocaled@aol.com

These workshops were made possible, in part, by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support provided by the California Arts Council, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the California Community Foundation.