Until next Sunday, a large part of the Port of Hamburg will shine in blue light this year as well. The Elbphilharmonie, the old Elbtunnel and even many ships are equipped with lights. The artist Michael Batz has installed his art project "Blue Port" on behalf of the cruise ship cruise "Cruise Days" on behalf of the city of Hamburg.
The city also organizes a photo contest around the project and wants to award the best recordings. Alone under the keyword "blueport" can be found on Instagram almost 18,000 pictures. But some of the amateur photographers were asked to pay for their recordings in the past few days.
Suddenly licensed
Anyone visiting the project website of the city of Hamburg has been informed that the art project is a temporary art action subject to special copyright rules. Especially the so-called panorama freedom is not applicable. For the commercial use of photos, please contact the artist Michael Batz.
This hint led to uncertainty among some private photographers; Therefore, they asked the artist for permission to post the photos, for example, on Instagram. In response, they received an e-mail from the collecting society Bild-Kunst, which is available to SPIEGEL.
It states that the light installation is a copyrighted work whose reproduction is subject to license and fee. Therefore, even for the publication by private individuals in social networks, a fee of just under 28 euros per year.
Dr. Till Kreuzer, lawyer and co-founder of an Internet portal for digital copyright, is the point of view of VG Bild-Kunst in conversation with the SPIEGEL basically right. "The panorama freedom generally describes that permanent works may be photographed in public places," says Kreuzer. In the light installation Blue Port, however, it was not a permanent work but a temporary work.
He refers to a similar case about the veiling of the Reichstag by the artist Christo. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has dealt with the question of what "lasting" in the panorama freedom means - this was in the case law long controversial. According to the Federal Court of Justice, however, it depends on whether something was set up in the public domain for a short and limited period of time from the outset. Thus, neither the wrapping of the Reichstag nor the Blue Port project falls under the panorama freedom.
The only question is whether the law is enforced. "You can rigidly withdraw to its legal position, but you can also say: let people just take pictures," says Kreuzer. After some excitement about the legal situation for Instagram photos, the artist and the city of Hamburg have evidently switched to this line.
Non-commercial release is allowed
"After a large number of inquiries regarding the possibility of publishing images of the Lichtkunstwerk Blue Port Hamburg, a solution has now been found together with Hamburg Tourism," it is now stated on the urban website of the Blue Port project. This solution allows "amateur photographers to use social media platforms for non-commercial use without the need for licensing by VG Bild-Kunst."
Compared to the "Hamburger Morgenpost", the artist Michael Batz also commented positively: "I want everyone to enjoy the installation, so hobby photographers now have the opportunity to use photos from the Blue Port on social media channels."
This applies only to non-commercial use. If you want to print pictures of the Blue Port installation, for example, on postcards, you still have to pay royalties.
