Le lundi 15 Mai 2006 17:52, Philippe Le Zuikomane a écrit :
> All this "droit a l'image" (image rights) stuff strikes me as fascist
> nonsense. It's like privatizing light. Don't take a pic of my house or I'll
> sue.
>
> Phil (French and disgruntled)
Being at least as much french and disgruntled, but being a lawyer too, I can
only point out two things : first, you can't forbid someone to sue, even on
stupid basis. Many owners have lost their trials against photographs. The
right to sue is the core of a democratic society, even if the plaintiff is
shooting himself in the foot. Second, there is a difference between right to
your own image as a part of your individual person, and right over the image
of a good you own. The latter is less protected, of course, while the first
is overprotected.
But the matter is much more complicated than that, and a lot of the problems
photographs are facing are rooted into the misinterpretations of those
various rights and their interactions. For instance if something you own
happens to be also protected by a copyright, the copyright holder is also
protected against the reproduction of his work by the photographer. This
explains for instance you can publish pictures of the Eiffel tower by
daylight (public domain), but must pay for pictures taken at night because
the light work is protected by IP laws. But in that case, you can take the
night picture for your own usage, covered by fair use. In a word : our system
is overengineered. (take my words with a grain of salt, I translated some
notions to the closest english ones, but there are few complete overlaps).
I would personaly welcome the clear cut approach which I believe exists in the
USA : everything that can be taken from public domain is public, full stop.
And to be honest, it's about the only legal principle I would welcome from
there. But this discussion would drift very far away from photography.
--
Manuel Viet
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