ECS submited its opinion on the ‘panorama exception’ to the Copyright Unit of the European Commission.
The European Copyright Society (ECS) considers that the issue of Freedom of Panorama (FoP) should not be reviewed in isolation from the broader, necessary reform of the European copyright framework. The ECS regrets the disproportionate level of importance accorded to the review of this single exception, which is already satisfactorily regulated under the Information Society Directive (Art. 5.3 (h)) (“use of works, such as works of architecture or sculpture, made to be located permanently in public places”). This provision should remain as it is. Existing problems, such as the need to allow for cross-border use, apply just as much to other exceptions (e.g. the education and research exception) as to FoP.