No Freedom Of Panorama

No Freedom Of Panorama

The European Parliament might destroy photography as we know it by taking away the Freedom of Panorama. That means public buildings and other works of art in public spaces will have a copyright and you need to ask permission to publish photos taken in European cities.

To demonstrate what it might look like, I prepared a photo of Berlin, where I removed the Reichstagsgebäude.

Here is a link to a petition where you will also find more information.

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Comments

61 responses to “No Freedom Of Panorama”

  1. Thanks for this update, I have signed! I didn’t know about this. It seems such a surreal idea, to add more restrictions instead of more freedom, that I find it hard to believe this proposal is on the table at all. But it’s not April 1, so… It’s just hard to believe how difficult it seems to be for legal frameworks to keep up with the times, and then: in who’s interest?

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    • My thought exactly. No doubt what they are trying to do is collect money from the pro photographers and cinematographers. Wonder how news outlets , specialty publications and the movie & television production companies will respond.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Whatever text will have such a law, taxes stipulated by it, will be transferred to the final consumer, which is the ordinary citizen. As a tourist, prohibition to use a picture taken on a travel, it would be a great frustration, because to make that photograph, i have already paid more taxes included in the price of the travel and in the price of photo equipment. With or without such a law, the reality is that many tourist attractions from Europe (especially museums), already have separate photo tax. I fear that photo tax law can not be stopped. European Commission and European Parliament are not used to asking european citizens, if they are agree with the laws emitted from Brussels.

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      • This is the flaw in the EU design. As my grandfather would say, half horse, half rabbit – they create a trade block union that has a type of governmental status, but the population identify with their country of origin first. This is quite natural, but it creates a level of government that most Europeans have little direct input. If they do not bite and shallow to become a self entity with proper government & democracy, these kinds of mandates will be imposed.

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      • Yes, your right. The EU either went to far or not far enough.
        Another problem I see is that a lot of countries send the politicians there they don’t want anymore and they are usually in full command of one lobby or other.

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      • Well, surely someone wants to collect money here…
        …well, if cinematographers and photographers protest, I think it is a matter of having the stronger lobby…

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  2. Thank you for doing this, it is an important issue that few people know about. I will reblog this and pass it to a member of the NUJ . My reasons for protest are (and were as stated on the petition).

    This is a restriction of freedom and a gross disrespect of those who fought for freedom.

    It could be fought in the European Court of Human Rights.

    It would never be enforceable in Britain. Never !

    Liked by 1 person

    • Hopefully it will never be enforced anywhere. Though I heard that one or two countries in the EU already have such a law.
      My opinion is that you should have a right to photograph/paint/draw/etc. any work of art or building in a public space and later publish it. It the copyright holder doesn’t want it, he shouldn’t put it in a public space.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Hi Rabirius,

    I thought you might wish to know that, whilst this post is visible to followers in the WP reader, it is not visible to any using the WP reader to search by category/tag. This is because the reader-search excludes posts with anything with more than 15 categories + tags ( oh $^%&) . The only remaining reference to this seems to be in “few tips” part way down the page at:-

    https://learn.wordpress.com/get-connected-3/

    .. and, it seems, a reblog of such a post which is is sought by category/tag (even it’s own) is also excluded from a reader search. Hope this helps. 🙂 It may take a while for any correction (i.e. remove a tag) to validate a post for the WP reader-search. (oh ^&*£%). 🙂

    P.S. Google does not place such a restriction but looks for consistent relevance.. yay 😀

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    • Thanks for pointing that out, Graham.
      I know about the limits, but I usually don’t really care. But in this case you’re right – a lot of people should see it. So I already removed one keyword yesterday – so there are now only 15.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. The European Parliament has destroyed too much already.
    Just another way of taxing (stealing) people’s money in order to fund their own lifestyles and their corrupt, failing system.

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  5. From my travel experience most of the tourists (especially from South Asia) just love to make selfies with the landmarks on background. If it is going to be prohibited people will travel virtually in the internet to see these beauties. Europe will loose visitors and money. These “smart” European bureaucrats trying to make troubles for their countries

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      • Yes, it really is absurd…
        …so gladly the law wasn’t passed. Though I heard that in some countries, there is no freedom of panorama, and therefore you cannot photograph the lights on the Eiffel Tower, for example.

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  6. I heard about this when I was at the Eiffel Tower, watching it twinkle at night. I didn’t know you weren’t allowed to publish pictures of that, even if the pictures are your own. I don’t understand the point of the copyright rule. It seems it’s only to benefit the chosen photographers.

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    • I don’t understand it either. I think if you crate a work of art and put it in a public place, you should have the right to photograph it. Otherwise you should put it somewhere private.
      The creator probably already got a lot of money for illuminating the Eiffel Tower anyway. (As do architects and other people who create something for public spaces.)

      Like

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