Why Night Image of Eiffel Tower is Illegal?

If you are reading this article, then I am pretty sure you would have seen the pictures of the iconic Eiffel Tower. But here's the question is whether you've seen a photo or video of the Eiffel tower of night? Most probably, not.

The reason for this is that there are some copyright issues involved in publishing the photos or videos of the Eiffel Tower at night for commercial purpose. But now you may ask, "Eiffel tower is a building and copyright is to protect the artistic works?" To answer this first we'll see what copyright means and how buildings are artistic work and then we'll see why night images of Eiffel tower are illegal.

In simple words, Copyright means an exclusive right given to the creator of the artistic work for its sale and distribution, generally. for a limited period of time, that is till the life of creator + certain number of years after death. This time period varies under various jurisdictions. For example:

In India: Life of creator + 60 years

In Malaysia: Life of creator + 50 years

In European Union: Life of creator + 70 years

In the context of EU copyright law, the buildings are considered as artistic work just like any song, painting, or book. So the buildings also get the protection of copyright law and no one can replicate those buildings.

One of the major exceptions to the EU copyright law is the 'Freedom to Panorama', it means that you can't make exact same building without permission of the original creators but can take photos or videos of that building because of the 'Freedom to Panorama'.

The Rule of 'Freedom to Panorama' is not obligatory for the member nations of the European Union. And that's why in France there is no 'Freedom to Panorama'.

In France, Photos or videos of copyrighted buildings for personal use is allowed but use of these photos or videos for commercial purpose is concerned illegal or violation of the copyright.

So now you may ask,

"Why do we get to see the photos or videos of the Eiffel tower being used for commercial purpose? and Why is it legal to show photos or videos of eiffel tower of the day time and illegal of the night time?

To answer this we will delve a little into the history of the Eiffel Tower.

Gustav Eiffel, a french civil engineer, who is credited for the construction of Eiffel Tower, in reality he was not the designer of the eiffel tower. He bought the designs for the tower from another civil engineer named Stephen Sauvestre, whose employees, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier actually made the designs of the iconic Eiffel Tower. Gustav Eiffel bought both the designs and the copyright from Stephen Sauvestre, which gave him the absolute right over the designs of the tower. Unfortunately, Gustav Eiffel died on 27th of December, 1923 and after 70 years from his death, that is, 1993, the copyright lapsed and the information related to the Eiffel tower is now in public domain and anyone can even use photos or videos of eiffel tower even in commercial purposes.

This is not the end, even if people are allowed to use the photos or videos of Eiffel tower, they are only allowed to use photos or videos which are taken during the daytime and not during the nighttime.

This is because of the reason that the lights on the Eiffel tower were installed only in the year of 1985. Since, these lights are also considered as artistic work and these are well within their copyright term for now.

That is the reason why any photo or video taken at night when lights of the Eiffel tower are visible is an illegal reproduction of the copyrighted work.

I know the very fact that, after reading this article you will go and google for pictures of Eiffel Tower taken at night time.

The fact is that you may find some pictures of the Eiffel Tower taken at night time, but these photos or videos violate the copyright and can be brought to court for the violation of the copyright. To date, no such case has been registered by the authorities.

For your Information, Eiffel tower is not the only such case, even the photos or videos of the Pyramid of Louvre, Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, and even the main train station in Rome, are not allowed and violate their respective copyrights.