New
EU Law, A Midsummer Nightmare?
On every European
vacation, tourists can never get enough photographs of the Eiffel Tower or the
London eye. But if the new European Union (hereinafter referred to as EU) law
is passed, the tourists will be left gaping.
The EU Press Release
dated June 16, 2015 titled EU Copyright
Reforms must balance Rightholder’s and Users’ Interests, says MEPs stated “On the “freedom of panorama”
principle, such as the right to create and share images and photographs of
public buildings, the text cautions that the commercial use of such
reproductions should require authorization from the rightholder.”
Freedom
of Panorama
Freedom of Panorama is a
provision in the copyright laws which permits taking photographs, videos and creating
other images such as paintings of buildings, sculptures and other work of art,
permanently located in a public place, without infringing any copyright that
may otherwise subsist in such works, and to publish such images.
The EU countries are
divided on the recognition of freedom of panorama. While countries like UK,
Ireland, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Spain enjoy freedom of panorama, other countries,
like Italy, France, Greece and Belgium do not recognize this freedom which means
that one has to obtain permission from the copyright holder before publishing
or posting images of buildings, sculptures and other work of art in which a
copyright subsists. However, certain countries like Norway and Finland, only
allow this freedom for images of buildings and no other works like sculptures. While
others, including the Baltic States, Romania and Bulgaria, only permit the use of
pictures for noncommercial purposes.
The
Issue
Draft
Report
This issue stemed from a
proposal by German Pirate Party, Member
of European Parliament (MEP) Julia Reda. She submitted a report suggesting that
“Freedom of Panorama” standards should be unified throughout the EU.
The Draft Report
presented by her mentioned that copyright law can be practical and fair if the
depiction of public buildings and sculptures is exempt from copyright protection.
The extremely diverging implementation of the “freedom of panorama” in different
Member States shows that there needs to be a pan-European, broadly defined
users’ right to display and communicate works that are located permanently in
public places.
Amendment
However, the above
proposal was amended by the Legal Affairs Committee of the EU Parliament to
read as follows:
Amendment 421, adopted in
committee with the votes of European People’s Party, Socialists & Cavada:
16.
Considers that the commercial use of photographs, video footage or other images
of works which are permanently located in physical public places should always
be subject to prior authorisation from the authors or any proxy acting for
them;
Effect
of this Change
Theoretically, this new
law only has implications for commercial use of photographs, such as in
advertisements, movies etc.
However, it could become
a problem for private use as well when these photographs are uploaded on social
networking sites such as Facebook, or other website that reserves the right to
use uploaders’ images (most networking sites contain such terms which permit
them to obtain an IP license for the content uploaded by its users. This subject
has been covered in our previous newsletter titled “Unwittingly Licensing IP on
Social Media?” and is available here).
Further, the law will
only affect those cultural landmarks that are still under the purview of copyright
protection, that is, the work is new enough to have a living copyright holder
or a proxy.
But there are other
complications associated with this. For example, the Eiffel Tower: the building
is not copyrighted, and one may click it to the heart’s content during the day.
But at night, it is illuminated. The lighting system is considerably modern and
under copyright, and so one may get into trouble for posting photographs of it.
Conclusion
In reference to this law,
a movement has been initiated by way of a petition through change.org by one
Nico Trinkhaus. In the said petition, Trinkhaus has pointed out that the true
objective of the Draft Report presented by Julia Reda has been lost and said
that “Instead of bringing the Freedom of
Panorama to the few countries that don’t know such law yet, it would take it
away from all those who do.” He has called on the members of the European
Parliament to not limit the Freedom of Panorama in any way and instead to bring
the Freedom of Panorama to all member states of the EU so that the European
Citizens can be assured to act within the law when taking and publishing
photographs from public buildings anywhere in the European Union.
The EU Parliament is set
to vote on this law on July 9, 2015.
References:
- Draft Report on the Implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the Harmonisation of certain aspects of Copyright and related rights in the Information Society, (2014/2256(INI)); Committee on Legal Affairs; Julia Reda.
- Amendments 281 – 556 on Draft Report on the Implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the Harmonisation of certain aspects of Copyright and related rights in the Information Society, (2014/2256(INI)); Committee on Legal Affairs; Julia Reda.
- EU Press Release - EU Copyright Reform must Balance Rightholders’ and Users’ Interests, say MEPs dated June 16, 2015.
- https://juliareda.eu/2015/06/fop-under-threat/
- https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-save-the-freedom-of-photography
- http://rt.com/news/269398-eu-panorama-freedom-ban/
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