Think it can't happen in the U.S.? In 1987 Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Robert Kasten (R-Wis.) sponsored the Visual Artists Rights Act, which included a resale levy.
"I think any extra regulation will increase costs for everyone and stop innovation on the part of companies already operating on small margins, " said Edward Roche, an analyst at the Concours Group, a Cambridge, Mass.