Today the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) has delivered a verdict (I ZR 104/17) about taking photos in a museum.
It is not allowed to take photos in a museum let alone publish them unless expressly permitted in the museums regulations.
Details:
In 2007 a man took photos in a museum and even scanned some from the museums catalog and later uploaded and published them in wikipedia.
(honestly I don't understand these actions with some common sense)
The museum sued him for this action as the museums regulations prohibited such actions.
(as most museums do, not only German; if you don't know, just ask at the entrance)
The man pled on expired copyright laws as the painters had died more than 70 years ago. This general regulation is part of the German copyright laws.
But it is not active in this case as with the access to the museum the man accepted the general terms and conditions of the museum.
As the incident took place in 2007 and therefore before the the GDPR (ger. DSGVO) became effective the old laws and regulations were taken into account.
But AFAIK the regulations became more restricted with the GDPR.
So I would still recommend to ask for permission first before you press the shutter.
It is not allowed to take photos in a museum let alone publish them unless expressly permitted in the museums regulations.
Details:
In 2007 a man took photos in a museum and even scanned some from the museums catalog and later uploaded and published them in wikipedia.
(honestly I don't understand these actions with some common sense)
The museum sued him for this action as the museums regulations prohibited such actions.
(as most museums do, not only German; if you don't know, just ask at the entrance)
The man pled on expired copyright laws as the painters had died more than 70 years ago. This general regulation is part of the German copyright laws.
But it is not active in this case as with the access to the museum the man accepted the general terms and conditions of the museum.
As the incident took place in 2007 and therefore before the the GDPR (ger. DSGVO) became effective the old laws and regulations were taken into account.
But AFAIK the regulations became more restricted with the GDPR.
So I would still recommend to ask for permission first before you press the shutter.
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