What Canada’s New Artist Resale Right Means for Creators & the Role Smart Contracts May Play

Canada is moving toward adopting an Artist Resale Right (ARR), a legal shift that would grant visual artists a royalty (up to 5%) every time their work is resold through commercial markets. It’s a long-awaited recognition of artists’ enduring value, even after the first sale.

As this policy takes shape, a new layer of creative infrastructure is emerging alongside it, not through legislation, but through blockchain.

Smart contracts, the self-executing code behind many NFT transactions and blockchain-based sales, have already introduced a functional version of resale rights. Artists who mint digital work on platforms like Ethereum or Tezos can build automatic royalties into every resale, globally, instantly, and without traditional legal channels.

So where does that leave ARR?

Ideally, these two systems will evolve together. ARR may bring resale royalties into the physical and institutional art market, including auction houses, galleries, and estate sales, while smart contracts continue to support digital-first creators and collectors. Together, they suggest a future where creators are compensated not just once, but consistently, across mediums and markets.

At Zamani Thomas Legal, while we are a U.S.-based firm, our work regularly includes Canadian clients and cross-border creative strategies. Whether you need contract language that accounts for ARR in Canada or guidance on structuring licenses with smart contract functionality, our goal is to help align legal and technological protections for artists and entrepreneurs alike.

Book a Creative Consult to explore how resale rights, blockchain, and long-term brand control can work in harmony. And for practical tools built for creators, visit The Creative Docket.