Dear all
As I know most of you will be aware, in the UK we have the legal right to
take photos of public art and buildings and share or publish them in print,
on social media, photo sharing websites, Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons.
This right, known as Freedom of Panorama, does not exist across Europe,
with restrictive laws existing in France, Sweden and a number of other
countries. The European Commission wants to harmonise the rules concerning
the sharing of these pictures across the European Union, and is consulting
on this until 15th June.
Wikimedia UK believes that the EU should replace the current inconsistent
set of laws with Europe-wide legislation allowing people to share images of
public art, buildings and skylines for all purposes. This includes
commercial use, which would enable people to share pictures on social media
and image sharing sites such as Facebook, Flickr or Instagram without being
in breach of copyright law. It would also enable images to be used for free
educational purposes on the Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, and
reduce the time and money currently wasted on rights clearance issues, for
example in guidebooks to works of art or architecture in countries
including France, Italy, Sweden and Belgium.Please respond to the
consultation by next Wednesday 15th June, ideally using You Can Fix
Copyright's public answering guide
<http://youcan.fixcopyright.eu/limesurvey/index.php/591338?lang=en&newtest=Y>,
and ensure that the UK’s rights are preserved, whilst supporting the
extension of Freedom of Panorama across Europe. The Commission is also
consulting on Ancillary Copyright, which Wikimedia UK believes is both
unnecessary and unfair on ordinary internet users. We would encourage you
to respond to this at the same time as the Freedom of Panorama consultation.
If you use social media, we would be grateful if you could share this
message or tweet about the consultation, using the hashtag #saveFoP
Many thanks!
Lucy
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Lucy Crompton-Reid
Chief Executive
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 207 065 0991
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The
Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate
Wikipedia, amongst other projects). *Wikimedia UK is an independent
non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility
for its contents.*