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| Chilling Effects Clearinghouse > DMCA Notices > Weather Reports > American Sculptor Issues Takedown Notice to Wikipedia | 
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|  American Sculptor Issues Takedown Notice to WikipediaAdam Holland, November 21, 2012 Abstract: American sculptors Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (now deceased) have issued a DMCA takedown notice to Wikipedia, concerning 59 photographs of examples of their work. A fascinating discussion about the extent to which copyright should protect worls on public display has sprung up recently around a DMCA notice sent to Wikipedia-US. Setting aside the discussion of why a sculptor might want to prevent, (or not) people from seeing photographs of his sculpture, in some jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and notably, given the locations of some of the sculpture at issue, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, copyright law explicitly recognizes a right to take photographs of artistic works on public display, without first securing the permission of the rights holder. This is typically known as “freedom of panorama”. IPKat has a write-up of this. However, there is no such right under United States law, and as Wikipedia points out, US conflict of laws analysis means that US law applies, even though some of the sculptures are located in countries with freedom of panorama laws. Wikipedia clearly would prefer to leave the photos up, but as is so often the case in matters such as these, lacks the resources for a prolonged legal battle, and merely urges its users to advocate for legal reform. We here at Chilling Effects bring this to your attention not only because it is a fascinating issue, but also in hopes of getting you to ask yourself “How often is this sort of thing happening? How many works of art have I never seen a photo of because of claims like this? What other aspects of public culture might I be missing because of takedown notices?”
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