Did you know those thousands of tourists in Paris who take photos of the Eiffel Tower illuminated at night and then share these images with their friends on social media are breaking the law? Hard to comprehend, but apparently that’s the law according to this article in the Daily Mail.
It’s complicated, but here’s a summary of how I understand it. The Eiffel Tower is a landmark and part of the public domain, so you can take photos of it during the day without any problems. When it’s lite up at night, the Eiffel Tower is transformed from public domain into a work of art, so you would need formal permission to publish your night time photos or you might get fined.
It seems ridiculous to me. Besides being completely non-enforceable, you’d think the French would have better things to do with their time. What do you think?
