EUobserver reports on an interesting quirk in the European Union’s copyright rules that allows member states to assert copyright protection over architectural works in public places. While some member states, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany, allow people to publish photographs of public buildings for any purpose, other member states, such as France, Belgium, and Italy, require people to get permission from a building’s copyright owner prior to publishing photographs of the building. Moreover, seeking such permission is not always a straightforward matter. For example, it is permissible to publish photographs of France’s Eiffel Tower during the day, because the architect has been dead long enough for the original copyright to expire. However, because the tower’s lights were installed at a later date, the arrangement of the lights is still covered by copyright, and permission must be secured to publish photographs taken at night. Think twice, American tourists, before posting those European vacation pictures on Facebook. Read the full article here.

By Cezary p (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Reposted from EUobserver.