The 1978 copyright law helps protect museum holdings and publications, and it affords effective relief for infringement, including injunctions, actual or statutory damages, attorney's fees and criminal penalties. It reduces the risk of inadvertent loss of rights through improper use or nonuse of the copyright notice, but at the same time increases the rights of artists in some as yet undefined ways. These increased artists' rights impose new risks and obligations on museums with respect to their copying or their authorization of copying of recent works in the collections or received on loan. Thus it is essential that museums and the creators of copyrighted works clearly define their respective rights in writing at the outset.