The Swedish copyright law for fine art scene is usually quite tranquil: There hasn’t been a major lawsuit in years. But that changed this week (Apr. 5) when the supreme court there passed judgment on a case that could open up online publishers to paying licensing fees for the use of images of public artworks.

Sweden’s supreme court ruled that a Wikipedia-affiliated website could not draw from its database of photographs of public art and distribute the images without permission from the artists. The ruling could reignite a debate around the so-called “freedom of panorama,” which are laws that govern the use of images of public art and buildings, in Europe.

“We believe that this ruling undermines the fundamental purpose of the freedom of panorama, the right for people to capture and share, online or otherwise, the beauty and art of their public spaces,” said Juliet Barbara, a communications manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that runs Wikipedia…

Source: A legal battle is brewing over the right to post photos of European public art online – Quartz