Tourists who snap photos of many public building and monuments, including the Atomium or Leuven’s pierced beetle, are in breach of property rights laws, and liberal politicians want to change that

Government coalition party Open VLD is preparing a bill to amend the law on intellectual property to put an end to what is effectively a ban on taking photos of public buildings.

At present, anyone who takes a photograph of the Brussels skyline in which the Atomium appears is in breach of copyright and owes a fee to the owners of the rights to the design of the monument – the estate of André Waterkeyn. The same goes for countless other buildings and fixtures that appear in the capital and across Belgium, such as the cartoon murals in the streets of Brussels or Jan Fabre’s famous pierced beetle sculpture in Leuven.

Most breaches of this sort of copyright are ignored. “Of course every artist isn’t busy tracking down every reproduction, but the fact that they tacitly allow photos doesn’t mean they can’t come after their rights later,” explained Open VLD MPs Patricia Ceysens and Frank Wilryckx, who are behind the amendment. “Look at the Atomium, which has in the past sent people summonses for the payment of authors’ rights.”

The bill would install what it calls “panorama rights” in Belgium’s intellectual property law, allowing the taking of photographs of anything in public space. The principle, which is already in force in other EU countries, considers that the original artist knew that the work would be present in public and therefore must accept that passers-by would take photos of it, either deliberately or as background. The photos could then be published in print or on social media, for both private and public consumption.

“People’s freedom to take pictures in public has to be more important that copyright protection,” said Ceysens, a former Flemish minister. “That’s only logical, since these works are often paid for with public funds.”

Photo courtesy www.atomium.be - SABAM 2011 - Alexandre Laurent (Aerial)