From: Michael Brady <bradydesign-AT-embarqmail.com>
Date: 06 Mar 2010 04:47:44 UTC   (11:47:44 PM in author's locale)
To: PublishingDC-AT-yahoogroups.com

I am designing a book on large construction projects. I want to use several photographs of the Millau Viaduct, in south central France. It's a breath-taking and beautiful bridge across a wide river valley. Here are several photos that I am thinking of using.

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Viaduc_de_Millau_3.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Creissels_et_Viaduct_de_Millau.jpg

There is a problem, which I stumbled across on this page:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Viaduc_de_Millau

Note the very prominent copyright alert: "This category features an architectural or artistic work that may be photographed from a public space in France. There are no Freedom of Panorama exemptions in France, which means that they cannot be photographed freely for anything else than personal purposes. However, French jurisprudence states that no infringement is constituted when the work is an "accessory compared to the main represented or handled subject"."

It copntains a link to this page:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:FOP

The book is about 700 pages long and deals with large constructions projects like dams, bridges, tunnels, vast building, and the like. I want to show the Millau Viaduct on some interior pages and on the title page spread, and maybe also on the cover (but there are two other, non-French buildings being considered).

Is anyone here familiar with this aspect of French law and whether it applies to using a photograph of an architectural object to illustrate a book? I'd appreciate any insight or comments you'd have.

Thanks.

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Michael Brady

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