Today we received some bad news. The Swedish Supreme Court ruled according to the will of the Visual Copyright Society in Sweden, regarding images of public art online, more specifically in the case of our service Offentligkonst.se, a service of ours that is using images from Wikimedia Commons.

This interpretation means that Freedom of Panorama became restricted and that the public space shrunk. It is a great loss for our projects. Next we will talk to our lawyers and see what our remaining legal options are. Intensive efforts to influence our elected officials to change the outdated and problematic clauses in the law are likely to be initiated during the year.

We appreciate any lessons learned that exist regarding the work you guys have done in your countries.

Some useful links (in Swedish):

• The legal argumentation from the court: http://www.hogstadomstolen.se/Domstolar/hogstadomstolen/Avgoranden/2016/2016-04-04%20%C3%96%20849-15%20Beslut.pdf

• Our press release: http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/pressreleases/hoegsta-domstolen-vaeljer-att-krympa-det-offentliga-rummet-istaellet-foer-att-gaa-paa-wikimedia-sveriges-linje-1360834

• A time-line of what has happened: https://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Offentligkonst.se/St%C3%A4mning

Best,

John

- - - -

John Andersson

Wikimedia Sverige

Project Manager

Phone: +46(0)73-3965189

Email: john.andersson@wikimedia.se

Skype: johnandersson86