Dear all,
I have to inform you that Wikimedia Sverige yesterday received the judgment from the Swedish Patent and Market Court in our case against BUS (Bildupphovsrätt i Sverige), an organisation representing artists. We unfortunately lost the case and the court order reads as follows:

• The Patent and Market Court enjoins Wikimedia Sverige, under a penalty of a fine of SEK 100 000, to  - by communication to the public - make the representations (pictures) in Exhibit 1-3 of the works available during the remaining term of protection for the works.
• The Patent and Market Court declares that Wikimedia Sverige is obliged to pay reasonable remuneration to Bildupphovsrätt i Sverige ek.för. with respect to the communication to the public of the representations (pictures) in Exhibit 1-3 via the website offentligkonst.se from December 19, 2013 and compensation for any additional damage caused by the infringement.
• Wikimedia Sverige shall compensate Bildupphovsrätt i Sverige ek.för. for litigation costs in an amount of SEK 647 759, whereof SEK 562 200 for attorneys’ fees, together with interest in accordance with section 6 of the Swedish interest act (1975:635) from today until payment is made.

The case has last since 2014, when we were sued by BUS, and in April 2016 the Swedish Supreme Court decided not in our favour, but the case was then handed back to the Patent and Market Court for final court order. Our lawyers have argued that the images don’t reside on our server offentligkonst.se, but are linked from Wikimedia Commons. This is not acceptable, according to the court.

We have now removed all links to images of public art where copyright still remains, but have kept the images of art in public domain. The consequences for Wikimedia Commons is not yet clear, and we have contact with Wikimedia Foundation’s legal team, who are now awaiting a translation of the court’s judgment (26 pages).

We have sent out a press release via various channels. We have started a crowdfunding campaign in order to get money to pay the litigation costs and remuneration to BUS according to the court order.

In the press release, we state that the problem with the judgment is that it is not allowed to share images of public art, art which is placed in the public space, in parks, squares and paid by the tax payers’ money. The outcome is tragic, as the art is no longer as accessible and public as it used to be. Our goal has been to give the art the visibility it deserves. It is very strange that in a digitalized world it is not allowed to share images digitally, if a public art can be seen on the image. Our opinion is that the law must be changed.

We don’t see that the judgment will impact Wikimedia Sverige’s ordinary projects, as they are funded via special project funding. As we have been aware that the outcome of the case could be what we now have faced, we have saved some money during the last years, but of course we need money from our supporters for this case.

Link to our press release: https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/wikimedia-sverige/pressreleases/domslut-krymper-det-offentliga-rummet-i-sverige-2054679

The image shows the most famous statue in Gothenburg outside the Gothenburg museum of fine art, but now hidden in black. The original image can be found on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APoseidonstatyn_i_G%C3%B6teborg_04.JPG

Link to the website offentligkonst.se

Kind regards

Mattias Blomgren

Chairman Wikimedia Sverige