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Eiffel Tower: Repossessed

BY Fast Company staffWed Feb 2, 2005 at 5:46 PM

You need look no further than Mickey Mouse in the US, or Elvis in the UK, to understand how copyright, for better or worst, affects the marketplace. But while Disney resorted to legal means to get more life out Mickey, those that oversee the Eiffel Tower came up with something far more clever.

The Eiffel Tower's likeness had long since been part of the public domain, when in 2003, it was abruptly repossessed by the city of Paris. That's the year that the SNTE, the company charged with maintaining the tower, adorned it with a distinctive lighting display, copyrighted the design, and in one feel swoop, reclaimed the nighttime image and likeness of the most popular monument on earth. In short: they changed the actual likeness of the tower, and then copyrighted that.

As a result, it's no longer legal to publish current photographs of the Eiffel Tower at night without permission. Technically, this applies even to amateurs. When I spoke to the Director of Documentation for SNTE, Stéphane Dieu, via phone last week, he assured me that SNTE wasn't interested in prohibiting the publication of amateur photography on personal Web sites. "It is really just a way to manage commercial use of the image, so that it isn't used in ways we don't approve," said Mr. Dieu.

So while publishing nighttime photos of the Eiffel Tower may now be illegal, it isn't all bad news for tourists; SNTE profits go back to the city of Paris, making it, hopefully, and even nicer place to visit.

Topics:

Leadership, law, Eiffel Tower, Paris (France), Stephane Dieu, Elvis Presley, Mickey Mouse


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Recent Comments | 67 Total

February 20, 2005 at 3:24am by adam

photos of anything can always be published in an editorial context, i.e. a newspaper. the illegality applies to commercial use, i.e. advertisements, promotional materials, etc. snap away, folks. feel free to sell a photo to a newspaper. just don't sell prints.

June 7, 2005 at 3:57pm by mike

Photographer's are crazy-fanatic about copyrighting the use of their own work, but there are some who cry foul when others attempt same.

February 9, 2006 at 11:05pm by Ariel

Question. I run a screen printing T-shirt business and last year I took great partial pics from the Eiffel tower.
(Those pictures are my personal work of Art)

I was thinking in printing those pictures on the T-shirts and sell them.

Does anybody know if this is possible? Or this is against the law?

Thank you for the help.

March 18, 2006 at 10:13pm by Tony Spencer

As was stated above, if the shots are at night and contain the lights of the tower as the predominant part of the image, then you need permission.

Since what you are wanting to do is clearly commercial use and you are utilising the image in a derivative way that could be injurious, they could have a good claim, depending on what you actually do to the images.

And under the Berne Convention this could be enforced in any signatory country.

May 22, 2006 at 11:31am by Steve Davies

Coming into this interesting (mainly) discussion a bit late. I understand UK copyright law but not French. Under UK law, a person putting a new arrangement of lights on a monument could not successfully claim infringement of copyright by someone filming/photographing it.It would not fall within the categories of protected works or, initself (ie separate from the Tower itself) constitute a work of art.
It seems unlikely to me that the operators of the Eiffel Tower have copyright through putting lights on it. I think they are trying it on- they have asserted a right and no one has challenged them- yet.

November 20, 2006 at 12:43pm by David Gadd

Ive posted a picture of the Eiffel tower today at my blog site - so will this be copyrighted then?

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