Freedom of panorama - what is it? Easily explained

Freedom of panorama - what is it?

The term panorama freedom (freedom of the street scene) is a restriction of the copyright on photos.
In Germany, photos of buildings or objects of art that can be seen from public paths and streets may be published and used without the author's permission.
The same applies to videos of buildings and art objects such as statues, monuments or wall paintings.
However, panoramic freedom does not apply in all European countries. In France, for example, the consent of the author must be obtained for the commercial use of photos showing public works of art. If you would like to take a picture of the illuminated Eiffel Tower at night and market the photo, you must first ask the lighting company for approval.

A report by the European Parliament on the upcoming copyright reform triggered the discussion about freedom of panorama.
The differences in freedom of panorama in the European member states should be reduced. This may sound sensible at first, but many people come across this sentence: "The European Parliament is of the opinion that the commercial use of photographs, video material or other images of works that are permanently placed in physical public places always require the prior consent of the author or other authorized representative. "
This means that before the commercial use of photos on which things can be seen that actually fall under the panorama freedom, may not be permitted in the future without the consent of the author. The law should therefore be harmonized across the EU - albeit to a stricter standard that takes liberties.
On July 9, the version in which the above sentence is also to be adopted.

First of all, it is clear that private use of photos with public art objects will continue to be possible without any problems. Only commercial use could be restricted.
However, the boundary between private and commercial is often narrow: Facebook is a commercial company and also uses user photos commercially. It is unlikely that users will have copyright problems in the future when they upload vacation pictures, but for the time being they cannot be ruled out.
Professional photographers expect bigger problems. So far, they could easily resell photos of public art objects. With the restriction of panoramic freedom, this would no longer be possible without the consent of the author.
The new regulation could also have an impact on websites such as Wikipedia: Many photos in the Internet lexicon show public art objects and buildings.

You can read more about panorama freedom in our next article: EU wants to drastically restrict panorama freedom.