Uppsala Art Map

Enjoy a selfie-safe art tour in the historic city of Uppsala

Say cheese! You may take photos with your smartphone of all the publicly displayed works of art in this tour. However, if the artist is still alive, or if less than 70 years have passed since he or she passed away, you may not share these digital photos publicly, e.g. by sharing them on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. If the artist passed away 70 or more years ago the work has fallen into the public domain and you may share your pictures in anyway you please.

Why is this?

Freedom of panorama (FOP) is a provision in the copyright laws of various jurisdictions that permits taking photographs and video footage and creating other images (such as paintings) of buildings and sometimes sculptures and other art works which are permanently located in a public place, without infringing on any copyright that may otherwise subsist in such works, and the publishing of such images. (Wikipedia, 2018)

A recent court case in Sweden decided that one is not allowed to share photographs of public art with the public through the internet. It does not matter whether the purpose is commercial or not. The court case was between Wikimedia Sweden and BUS (a Swedish collective management organisation for picture artists).