[Foundation-l] Bridgeman v. Corel worldwide for Wikimedia Commons - yes or no?

Fri Aug 22 06:42:46 UTC 2008

Cary Bass wrote:
> teun spaans wrote:
>> While on holiday in Italy i took some pix of plants in a botanical garden.
>> There was no admittance fee, it was publicly accessible.
>>
>> Can i upload the pix of the plants I took there, or does the owner of the
>> botanical garden has some form of ownership?
> 
> This is not to say that the botanical garden doesn't claim restriction
> on the use of images taken within its walls (in my experience,
> non-commercial clauses are the norm).  In fact, such restrictions are
> quite commonplace for botanical gardens, zoological parks, and many
> other facilities.  This should not be mistaken for a claim of copyright;
> and at most they might do is deny you access to their property in the
> future.

Actually, I think that a botanical garden could claim copyright on plant 
layout or somesuch. I'm not aware that this has ever happened, however, 
and of course panorama freedom would apply. Also not a problem when 
photographing individual plants, unless they are [[living sculpture]]s.