Dear Berard,

thanks for sharing that. I assume you (wisely) borrowed most of the wording of your proposal directly from the Infosoc directive -- at any rate, the two texts seem to match word-for-word, with one noticeable difference: While the Infosoc directive does not require a limitation to particular categories of works, your proposed amendment would apply (only) to "oeuvres architecturales et des sculptures;" the Directive meanwhile refers to "oeuvres, telles que des réalisations architecturales ou des sculptures" (Art. 5(3)(h)). I'd be interested in the reasoning for that choice. I'm not criticizing it, I'm just curious about the 'why.'

I noticed recently that the Wikimedia organizations involved in the policy debates surrounding the "freedom of panorama" repeatedly fell back to such a limitation, to the extent that the Bernardi/Isaias/Lobert memorandum (c.f., https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/advocacy_advisors/2015-March/000950.ht..., ) even -- contrary at least to the common understanding of the term among German/Swiss/Austrian commentators and the few U.S. scholars who occasionally use the term -- goes so far as to /define/ freedom of panorama as an "unconditional copyright exception vis-à-vis works of architecture and sculpture placed permanently in public places." That certainly doesn't match the everyday understanding of "panorama" either. Surely, a "panorama" is not, for most people, limited to architectural and sculptural works. Think of works, say paintings or sgraffiti, on the exterior walls of buildings. They are not necessarily part of the architectural work (just see Leicester v. Warner Bros, 232 F. 3d 1212 (9th Cir. 2000) for a U.S. take on this), so even using pictures of the architectural work could prove impossible under such a provision. Austrian law, for instance, limits the applicability to "works of architecture and works of fine art" (s. 54(1)(5) Copyright Code), which would seem like a considerably less troublesome alternative to "works of architecture and sculptural works."

Best, Patrik

On 16 October 2015 at 11:59, Berard Myriam myriam.berard@wikimedia.fr wrote:

Dear all,

The French government is currently staging an open online consultation on the "Loi sur la République numérique" (Digital Bill) on the internet. The public is invited to suggest amendments to 30 proposed measures, ranging from net neutrality to making official documents available to all.

Everyone can propose amendments to the text and vote for or against the proposals online. The current version of the bill does not include any freedom of panorama implementation perspective in France. Wikimedia France is thus proposing an amendment to make FoP a reality in France.

You can:

1. Vote for our amendment:

https://www.republique-numerique.fr/consultations/projet-de-loi-numerique/co... (requires registration) 2. Vote against a proposal reduced to a non-commercial use

https://www.republique-numerique.fr/consultations/projet-de-loi-numerique/co...

3. Share this around to any person who would be interested in FoP

Votes are open until October 18th.

For more information, an article was just published (in French) on the blog of Wikimedia France and is available http://blog.wikimedia.fr/votez-pour-une-liberte-de-panorama-en-france-7883 .

Thank you all !

Myriam BERARD Chargée de projet relations publiques & propriété intellectuelle Wikimédia France _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe