Panoramic freedom

--- CONTENT ---
Panoramic freedom (also street image freedom) is a restriction of copyright provided for in many legal systems, which allows everyone to reproduce works protected by copyright, such as buildings, art in construction or art in public space, which can be seen from public transport routes, without the author of the work having to be asked for permission. In most copyright laws, this fundamental exemption is also shaped by specific restrictions in order not to burden the author excessively in his legal status.

Irrespective of copyright law, other legal aspects may also oppose pictorial reproduction or its exploitation, such as property rights, house rights, personal rights of the occupants of a building or state security considerations (for example, in the case of military installations). These are usually not affected by the panoramic freedom or are only affected to a narrow extent.

National differences

Although there is a regulation of panoramic freedom in many countries of the world (see also the adjacent map for Europe), the regulations differ in their extent in some cases considerably.

Often only very precisely named types of work are included or excluded (example: Austria, where the exception applies only to works of architecture and fine arts), while other countries do not know any restrictions on individual types of work (example: Germany). Partially, the type of use is restricted, for example by means of a prohibition of commercial use (example: Slovenia, Bulgaria) or a restriction of the exemption to those uses of works for which the depicted work is not the central image subject (example: Finland). The respective regulations also differ with regard to the public term used. Some legislators, for example, only want to privilege works outdoors, but not indoors (example: Iceland), while in other countries, works indoors also fall under the exception to a certain extent (example: Austria). the characteristic of freedom of remuneration is not constitutive of the panoramic freedom as defined in this Article; Although the vast majority of countries with such a regulation allow free use, in some cases at least the commercial use is linked to a remuneration obligation (example: Iceland, with restrictions).

Germany

Standard
The law on copyright and related rights (UrhG) is decisive:

Legal development
The current regulation on panoramic freedom exists in unchanged form since the Copyright Act came into force on 1 January. January 1966.

German and North German Federation
The exceptional rule in Germany already had its origins in the 19th century. After at the level of the German Federation in 1837 by the Federal Assembly of the Bundesbes