The vacation is just around the corner and you would like to publish the travel destinations you have photographed yourself on social media.

At the same time, the GDPR has fueled new uncertainties regarding holiday photos and their publication: What is possible and what is not? We can largely be reassured here, because the images that are created from a normally accessible and public area are covered by freedom of panorama in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

This means that it is unproblematic to photograph the resulting images of, for example, private houses, gardens or even publicly accessible works of art and then use them freely. For Germany, the corresponding legal text on freedom of panorama is [ 1]:

Copyright and Related Rights Act (Copyright Act)

§ 59 Works in public places

(1) It is permissible to reproduce, distribute and publicly reproduce works that are permanently located on public paths, streets or squares using painting or graphics, photographs or film. In the case of buildings, these powers only extend to the external appearance.

(2) Reproductions may not be made on a building.

However, this is not regulated uniformly in Europe! Until now, freedom of panorama has been regulated differently in Europe. Each country had its own regulations. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, freedom of panorama is actually a freedom: anyone who takes a photo of their surroundings in a normally accessible public area can use it freely. However, the following map shows how differently this freedom is granted across Europe. The traffic light map makes this clear:


MIMIKAMA( Maximilian Dörrbecker ( Chumwa ) – Own work, using: File:Levels of Freedom of Panorama in Europe.svg )

Therefore, when on vacation you should always pay at least a little attention to which country you are in.

Does the GDPR have anything to do with this?

Interesting at this point: the personal rights of any people depicted have always had to be taken into account. This also applies to freedom of panorama: personal representations may not be published without their consent. Easy to remember, it was already in effect before the GDPR came into force.

Trivia: The Eiffel Tower Dilemma

The Eiffel Tower, in conjunction with the freedom of panorama, is a very clear example of how a distinction is made between copyright and freedom of panorama. Photographs of the Eiffel Tower day and night are permitted. However, publication of the images is only permitted for daytime photography without permission.

The reason lies in the copyright of the lighting, because the operating company SETE (Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel) claims the publishing rights to the illuminated Eiffel Tower for itself.

“Daytime views from the Eiffel Tower are rights-free”

“Permission and rights must be obtained from the “Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel” (the Operating Company, or SETE) for the publication of photos of the illuminated Eiffel Tower.”

If you still want to publish a picture of the illuminated Eiffel Tower, you should obtain permission from the operating company:

documentation(at)toureiffel.paris

Night photos of the illuminated Eiffel Tower may not be published without the permission of the operating company. This applies to private individuals as well as to commercial use by photographers or filmmakers (see also Gulden Röttger Rechtsanwälte ).


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )