Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 5-62 - Works of Art - Artists' Rights

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• art merchant: includes an auctioneer who sells art works at public auction, and except in the case of multiples, includes persons, not otherwise defined or treated as art merchants in this section, who are consignors or principals of auctioneers. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Artist: means the creator of a work of fine art or, in the case of multiples, the person who conceived or created the image, that is contained in or constitutes the master from which the individual print was made. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• authorship: refers to the creator of a work of fine art or multiple or to the period, culture, source, or origin, as the case may be, with which the creation of that work is identified in the description of the work. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Certificate of authenticity: means a written statement by an art merchant confirming, approving, or attesting to the authorship of a work of fine art or multiple, which is capable of being used to the advantage or disadvantage of some person. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conservation: means acts taken to correct deterioration and alteration and acts taken to prevent, stop, or retard deterioration. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Counterfeit: means a work of fine art or multiple made, altered, or copied, with or without intent to deceive, in any manner that it appears or is claimed to have an authorship that it does not in fact possess. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Craft: means a functional or nonfunctional work individually designed and crafted by hand in any medium, including, but not limited to: textile, tile, paper, clay, glass, fiber, wood, metal, or plastic; provided, that if produced in multiples, craft does not include works mass produced or produced in other than a limited edition. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Creditors: means "creditor" as defined in the Uniform Commercial Code, § 6A-1-201(13). See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Limited edition: means works of art produced from a master, all of which are the same image and bear numbers or other markings to denote the limited production of the work to a stated maximum number of multiples, or are otherwise held out as limited to a maximum number of multiples. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Master: when used alone, is used in lieu of and means the same as such things as printing plate, stone, block, screen, photographic negative, or other like material that contains an image used to produce visual art objects in multiples, or in the case of sculptures, a mold, model, cast, form, or other prototype, other than from glass, from which additional multiples of sculpture are produced, fabricated, or carved. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• multiples: means prints, photographs, positive or negative, sculpture, and similar art objects produced in more than one copy and sold, offered for sale, or consigned in, into, or from this state for an amount in excess of one hundred dollars ($100), exclusive of any frame, or in the case of sculpture, an amount in excess of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• On consignment: means that no title to, estate in, or right to possession of the work of fine art or multiple that is superior to that of the cosigner vests in the cosignee, notwithstanding the cosignee's power or authority to transfer or convey all the right, title, and interest of the cosignor, in and to such work, to a third person. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other group, however organized. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• real estate: may be construed to include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and rights thereto and interests therein. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-10
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Reproduction: means a copy, in any medium, of a work of fine art that is displayed or published under circumstances that, reasonably construed, evinces an intent that it be taken as a representation of a work of fine art as created by the artist. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Sculpture: means a three-dimensional fine-art object produced, fabricated, or carved in multiple from a mold, model, cast, form, or other prototype, other than from glass, sold, offered for sale, or consigned in, into, or from this state for an amount in excess of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• seal: shall be construed to include an impression of the seal made with or without the use of wax or wafer on the paper. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-15
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Signed: means autographed by the artist's own hand, and not by mechanical means of reproduction, after the multiple was produced, whether or not the master was signed or unsigned. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• town council: include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Work of fine art: means any original work of visual or graphic art of any medium that includes, but is not limited to, the following: painting; drawing; print; photographic print; or sculpture of a limited edition of no more than three hundred (300) copies; provided, that "work of fine art" does not include sequential imagery such as that in motion pictures. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2
• Written instrument: means a written or printed agreement, bill of sale, invoice, certificate of authenticity, catalogue, or any other written or printed note or memorandum or label describing the work of fine art or multiple that is to be sold, exchanged, or cosigned by an art merchant. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-62-2