Commons:Village pump/Archive/2025/12
Latest comment: 7 days ago by Jmabel in topic Freedom of panorama, Norway
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Freedom of panorama, Norway
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory/Norway#Freedom_of_panorama I believe this is wrong. According to the Norwegian Copyright Act (Åndsverkloven) § 23 (1), works of art that are permanently placed in or at a public space may be freely depicted, unless to be used commercially. This means that photographing and publishing such images is permitted without obtaining permission from the rights holder. Source: Åndsverkloven (Copyright Act) § 23 (1).
Because of how this has been interpreted, I've noticed that photos of a few public artworks/statues have been unnecessarily deleted. Birdesigns (talk) 13:34, 1 December 2025 (UTC)
- "unless to be used commercially" exactly means that we can not host the images. Ymblanter (talk) 14:51, 1 December 2025 (UTC)
- Per Commons:Licensing:
Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content, that is, images and other media files that are not subject to copyright restrictions which would prevent them being used by anyone, anytime, for any purpose.--Rosenzweig τ 15:04, 1 December 2025 (UTC) - I’m commenting on my own post to point out that Norwegian law / the Copyright Act distinguishes between commercial use (press, magazines, merchandise) – which is allowed – and advertising – which is not. I was not aware (as I should have been) that Commons doesn't make this exception/distinction. Birdesigns (talk) 17:18, 1 December 2025 (UTC)
- @Birdesigns: Can you cite something that substantiates that distinction?
- I'm not sure where that distinction, if valid, leaves us. We've accepted the equivalent for pictures in the U.S. as a personality rights issue (hence non-copyright); however, this seems to be more of a true copyright matter than that. - Jmabel ! talk 00:54, 2 December 2025 (UTC)