Société de la Propriété Artistique et des Dessins et Modèles, often S.P.A.D.E.M. or SPADEM, is a copyright protection and collection society formed by visual artists and their heirs in France. One of several such organizations in France which specialize according to specific kinds of art, SPADEM's purpose is similar to that of ASCAP and other organizations which defend the legal rights of artists.
At its inception, artists and their heirs subscribed a nominal fee; all available visual material was monitored, unauthorised use of registered members' works were policed, standard fees recovered and passed on to members, less a small percentage for the costs of administration. SPADEM continues to operate successfully and has its own or sister societies throughout the world where reciprocal enforcement arrangements exist.
The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) was created in December, 1983, for copyright enforcement in the United Kingdom, not only for UK-based artists and their heirs, but also for foreign-based artists and their heirs whose copyright works are the subject of unauthorised use. A forerunner of DACS, the Artists Union, which ran from 1972 until 1983, was formed to defend the interests of visual artists. British artists were concerned not only about the copyright laws, but also about their "moral right" to control the uses to which their art was put. In this, they followed the lead of SPADEM and other European artists, who retain a legal right to a work after selling it: a purchaser cannot deface or destroy the work.