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The Pilipinas Panorama Community (PPC) is a thematic Wikimedia organization based in the National Capital Region of the Philippines.

The community was founded by Filipino Wikimedians advocating equity, cultural heritage, history, language & ethnicity, art, freedom of panorama, and Wikimedia's Movement Strategy, contributing to expand the global availability of free knowledge.

Freedom Of Panorama (FoP) in the Philippines

Majority contributions from User:JWilz12345.
Hashtags

Facebook: #FreedomofPanoramaPH; Twitter: #FreedomofPanoramaPH

Facebook: #FoPinPH; Twitter: #FoPinPH

Definitions of "Freedom of Panorama" (FoP)


  • According to Dulong de Rosnay and Langlais (2017) – "the legal right in some countries to publish pictures of artworks, sculptures, paintings, buildings or monuments that are in public spaces, even when they are still under copyright."[1]
  • As per IPOPHL's Atty. Chuck Valerio as quoted by Reyes (2021) – "an exception under copyright laws, similar to fair use, that dispenses with the need to secure prior permission from a copyright owner for the use of a work."[2]

In other words, freedom of panorama is a little-known yet important legal right for photographers, netizens, and content creators to freely take pictures of public works of art and architecture found in or seen in public spaces, usually installed on either a permanent basis (e.g. Swiss freedom of panorama) or long-term basis (e.g. Taiwanese freedom of panorama). 

For example, an indie film producer shoots a famous public building in a Metro Manila city made by a famous architect and National Artist, producing assorted photographs with that building both as the main subject and as the background or incidental element. He then uses these photos on his film, which got the attention of Netflix that then purchases the right to stream his film in their famous streaming platform. Without freedom of panorama he still needed commercial license authorization from the architect (or his heirs if he is already deceased for less than 50 years), but with this exception such prior permission is no longer necessary. The same principle of freedom of panorama applies to shooting of works of monuments still under their sculptors' copyrights.


Benefits of Freedom of Panorama

See also: EU policy/Strategy/FoP/Argumentation
  • Photographers can host their photos of works of architecture and monuments on Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, and Getty Images under licenses they desire. For Wikimedia Commons, this is elaborated later in this advocacy page.
  • Images of the same works can be used in tourism souvenir items like T-shirt prints, calendar designs, post cards, coffee mug designs, and many more. This boosts the tourism industry of a country.
  • State-owned philatelic agencies, such as the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) in the Philippines, can freely use the same works in their commemorative stamps.
  • Content creators can use their photos of the same works in their YouTube or Facebook vlogs, even for commercial or semi-commercial purposes. Donation drives by vloggers are semi-profitary in nature as these involve collecting some amount.
  • Developers or web admins of travel portals and blogs can freely use photos of the same works in their websites.
  • Painters are free to create paintings that depict cityscape or townscape as their subjects, and liberally include the same works in their paintings that they can sell for their livelihood.
  • Netizens can freely share vacation photos of the same works in social media (Twitter, Instagram et cetera) and in Flickr, under Creative Commons licenses.
  • Book publishers can freely use the same works in the covers of the books they published, such as novels or short stories that they will sell to millions.
  • Advertising companies can legally use the same works in their ads (TV commercials, tarpaulins, etc..) as significant element (e.g. background) of their advertising works.
  • Teleserye and film making production companies (like Regal, Viva, Dreamscape, ABS-CBN, GMA, et cetera) can legally depict the same works in their audio-visual outputs.
  • For architects: Freedom of panorama is important for building up discourse on architecture, in print, in audio-visual media, and in online media. As per Archify: "But most importantly for architects, we live in a world where images of our built environment - shared freely between people via the internet - are increasingly important in constructing a discourse around that built environment. We live in a world that requires freedom of panorama in order for architects to make the world a better place. And architects should be pretty upset about how many restrictions have been placed, and continue to be placed, on that freedom."[3]

Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons (or "Commons"), a sister site of Wikipedia and hosted by Wikimedia Foundation, only accepts freely-licensed media files as per its "Commons:Licensing" policy page, such as files under Creative Commons Attribution and/or Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike. It not accept fair use content as well as media licensed for non-commercial use only (like BY-NC-SA).[4] Therefore, the media repository treats freedom of panorama with utmost importance, with a dedicated policy page on it.[5] Through freedom of panorama photos of works of architecture and monuments can be hosted on Commons under free licenses. Therefore, helping facilitating knowledge on architecture, public art, and heritage throughout Wikimedia umbrella.

Images on Wikimedia Commons can be freely used in all websites under Wikimedia umbrella. While English Wikipedia has accepted original resolutions of photos of unfree architecture from no-FoP countries (following only U.S. copyright law),[6] local files there cannot be used in other language editions of Wikipedia (like Tagalog Wikipedia) as well as other sister sites like Wikivoyage and Wikinews. In addition, since the U.S. freedom of panorama is for architecture only, photos of copyrighted public art like monuments cannot be freely hosted on English Wikipedia unless applicable fair use tags are used, and such photos cannot be used on list articles. It is noteworthy that the article "List of public art in Metro Manila" is lacking any illustration for contemporary monuments still under sculptors' copyright.

Courtesy of freedom of panorama, the annual Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) photo competition can be conducted with broader scope, to include modern and contemporary monuments and architecture, not just limited to old or public domain monuments and architecture. Thus complete documentation of the country's heritage structures becomes possible.

The Philippines

According to Atty. Valerio, the current version of the Philippines copyright law (Republic Act No. 8293), as it stands, does not have this important exception,[2] reinforcing the Wikimedia Commons interpretation that the Philippines does not have freedom of panorama in the list of copyright exceptions (Article 184).[7]

One possible option for the general public using photos of copyrighted structures in public space is Section 185, "Fair Use of a Copyrighted Work". However, according to Macahiya (2012), "the Court ruled that a non-commercial use is not fair use when it has substantial market effect."[8] So even if a photo is to be used non-commercially, if it was disseminated or shared on a platform where people can freely view it (e.g. Instagram and TikTok), possibly this is no longer falling under fair use. This is more so in sharing of photos of copyrighted public landmarks of the Philippines on Commons, since the photos are already licensed in such a way free culture uses are mandated and that the structures gained very wide viewing access through the Commons site, more so, the English Wikipedia site once the photos are inserted in Philippines-related articles.

No-FoP impact for Pinoy Wikimedians

The lack of complete freedom of panorama in the Philippines deprives Pilipino Wikimedians' ability to record assorted contemporary public buildings and monuments through freely-licensed photos hosted on Wikimedia Commons. As said before Commons only accepts freely-licensed content. It cannot accept photos of public works and art from countries that lack adequate freedom of panorama. Photos of such works caught by license reviewers and administrators on Commons are immediately tagged for deletion through "Deletion requests" discussions.

In Wikimedia jargon "deletion" does not result to permanent removal of content; rather it only redacts the content and makes it invisible to non-administrators. Therefore, deleted content can be "undeleted" or "restored" if there is a valid reason to do so, like the introduction of freedom of panorama in a no-FoP country.

The first Philippine FoP deletion request (2007) involved a photo of the 11th World Scout Jamboree Memorial roundabout,[9] authored by sculptor Florante Beltran Caedo. Since then Commons photos of many other public structures have been redacted, including:

  • "The Angry Christ" mural, Victorias[10]
  • Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas[11]
  • Crown Regency Hotel, Cebu City[12]
  • Divine Mercy Shrine, El Salvador, Misamis Oriental[13]
  • Eagle of the North[14]
  • EDSA Shrine[15]
  • "The Execution of Dr. Jose P. Rizal", Rizal Park[16]
  • G.T. International Tower[17]
  • Iloilo International Airport[18]
  • Kartilya ng Katipunan and Bonifacio Monument[19]
  • Lion's Head[20]
  • LRT Line 1 (Metro Manila) stations, including the United Nations station[21]
  • MacArthur's Landing (Leyte Landing Memorial)[22]
  • Malacañan Palace[23]
  • New Clark City Athletics Stadium[24]
  • Oblation of University of the Philippines[25]
  • People Power Monument[26]
  • Philippine Arena[27]
  • Philippine International Convention Center[28]
  • Quezon Memorial Shrine[29]
  • SM Mall of Asia[30]
  • Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkhia Mosque[31]
  • TriNoma[32]
  • A certain public art in Naga, Camarines Sur, involved in a hotly-debated deletion request.[33]
  • Certain murals in Makati.[34]

More Philippine FoP deletions at Commons can be found at this Commons category.

Deletions have also been made at English Wikipedia itself too. As said before, public art is not allowed if not tagged as fair use. Non-fair use photos have been deleted since at least 2009. Among these are photos showing Peter Tiamzon de Guzman's Memorare – Manila 1945 Monument[35] and Eduardo Castrillo's People Power Monument.[36] Additionally, one People Power Monument photo was speedily deleted under a vague reasoning: "Derivative work lacking adequate licensing information regarding its components," possibly derivative work of a copyrighted sculpture without license from Castrillo's heirs (had the Philippines had freedom of panorama, this issue would not surface in the first place, and image file could have been transferred to Wikimedia Commons so that other wiki sites under Wikimedia umbrella could use this image too). See also: this page.

Some old discussions concerning Philippine freedom of panorama

On English Wikipedia

Recent developments

Main article: Pilipinas Panorama Community/Freedom of Panorama/Progress


For the community discussion, including suggestions and opinions or perspectives of Pilipinas Panorama Community members, visit Talk:FoP Philippines Discussion Group.

Extending Freedom of Panorama in Europe

Successful FoP introductions

See: Freedom of Panorama#Successful FoP introductions.

Freedom of Panorama (FoP) statuses, internationally


The following subsection (including the table) is transcluded from User:JWilz12345/FoP global statuses.
Freedom of Panorama statuses internationally, in 197 countries.
  • All 197 countries as per [1]. Non-commercial FoP (e.g. Azerbaijan, Cabo Verde, Malawi, South Korea, and Uzbekistan), incidental FoP (e.g. Cambodia, Luxembourg, and Zambia), and FoP for traditional mass media only (e.g. Greece, Lebanon, and UAE) are considered as not OK as these are not suitable for Wikimedia Commons. "Partial" denotes FoP is for architecture only but not other types of public artistic works.
  • "YES" designation also includes countries with full FoP for 3D public space works (e.g. buildings and sculptural monuments) but limited or no FoP for most 2D public space works (e.g. murals and church/mosque/temple frescoes), like India and UK.

A more comprehensive table is available at Wikimedia Commons: c:Commons:Freedom of panorama/table.

Statistics

Out of 197 countries...

  • 110 have no FoP (55.84%), and
  • 87 have some-form of Commons-compatible FoP (44.16%).

Out of those 87 countries...

  • 80 have adequate FoP*, and
  • 7 have partial FoP, for architecture only: Denmark, Finland, Japan, Norway, Russia, Taiwan, United States

Note: * - accounts for 40.6% of all 197 countries. Percentage calculated using this online percentage calculator.

Table
Freedom of panorama statuses
Country FoP status Note/s 1 Note/s 2
Afghanistan no
Albania yes
Algeria yes
Andorra no
Angola yes
Antigua and Barbuda yes
Argentina[note 1] no
Armenia yes
Australia yes ESEAP
Austria yes EU
Azerbaijan no
Bahamas yes
Bahrain no
Bangladesh no
Barbados yes
Belarus no
Belgium yes EU
Belize yes
Benin no OAPI
Bhutan no
Bolivia yes
Bosnia and Hercegovina no
Botswana no
Brazil yes
Brunei yes ASEAN ESEAP
Bulgaria no EU
Burkina Faso no OAPI
Burundi no
Cabo Verde no
Cambodia no ASEAN ESEAP
Cameroon no OAPI
Canada yes
Central African Republic no OAPI
Chad no OAPI
Chile yes
China yes ESEAP
Colombia yes
Comoros no OAPI
Congo-Brazzaville (R.) no OAPI
Congo-Kinshasa (D.R.) no
Costa Rica no
Côte d'Ivoire no OAPI
Croatia yes EU
Cuba yes
Cyprus yes EU
Czech Republic yes EU
Denmark partial EU
Djibouti no
Dominica no
Dominican Republic yes
East Timor / Timor-Leste yes ESEAP
Ecuador no
Egypt yes
El Salvador yes
Equatorial Guinea no OAPI
Eritrea no
Estonia no EU
Eswatini no
Ethiopia no
Fiji yes ESEAP
Finland partial EU
France no EU
Gabon yes OAPI
Gambia no
Georgia no
Germany yes EU
Ghana no
Greece no EU
Grenada yes
Guatemala no
Guinea no OAPI
Guinea-Bissau yes OAPI
Guyana yes
Haiti no
Honduras no
Hungary yes EU
Iceland no
India yes
Indonesia no ASEAN ESEAP
Iran no
Iraq no
Ireland yes EU
Israel yes
Italy no EU
Jamaica yes
Japan partial ESEAP
Jordan no
Kazakhstan no
Kenya yes
Kiribati no ESEAP
Korea, North (DPRK) yes
Korea, South (ROK) no ESEAP
Kosovo yes
Kuwait no
Kyrgyzstan no
Lao PDR no ASEAN ESEAP
Latvia no EU
Lebanon no
Lesotho no
Liberia no
Libya no
Liechtenstein yes
Lithuania no EU
Luxembourg no EU
Madagascar no
Malawi no
Malaysia yes ASEAN ESEAP
Maldives no
Mali no OAPI
Malta yes EU
Marshall Islands[note 2] yes ESEAP
Mauritania yes OAPI
Mauritius no
Mexico yes
Micronesia (FS) no ESEAP
Moldova yes
Monaco no
Mongolia yes ESEAP
Montenegro no
Morocco no
Mozambique no
Myanmar / Burma no ASEAN ESEAP
Namibia no
Nauru no ESEAP
Nepal no
Netherlands yes EU
New Zealand yes ESEAP
Nicaragua no
Niger no OAPI
Nigeria no
North Macedonia yes
Norway partial
Oman no
Pakistan yes
Palau no ESEAP
Palestine yes
Panama yes
Papua New Guinea no ESEAP
Paraguay yes
Peru yes
Philippines no ASEAN ESEAP
Poland yes EU
Portugal yes EU
Qatar no
Romania no EU
Russian Federation partial
Rwanda no
Saint Kitts and Nevis yes
Saint Lucia yes
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines yes
Samoa (Western) no ESEAP
San Marino no
São Tomé e Príncipe yes
Saudi Arabia no
Senegal no OAPI
Serbia yes
Seychelles no
Sierra Leone no
Singapore yes ASEAN ESEAP
Slovakia yes EU
Slovenia no EU
Solomon Islands yes ESEAP
Somalia no
South Africa no
South Sudan no
Spain yes EU
Sri Lanka no
Sudan no
Suriname yes
Sweden yes EU
Switzerland yes
Syria no
Taiwan partial ESEAP
Tajikistan no
Tanzania no
Thailand yes ASEAN ESEAP
Togo no OAPI
Tonga no ESEAP
Trinidad and Tobago yes
Tunisia yes
Türkiye yes
Turkmenistan no
Tuvalu yes ESEAP
Uganda yes
Ukraine no
United Arab Emirates (UAE) no
United Kingdom (UK) yes
United States of America (USA) partial
Uruguay yes
Uzbekistan no
Vanuatu no ESEAP
Vatican City[note 3] no
Venezuela yes
Vietnam no ASEAN ESEAP
Yemen no
Zambia no
Zimbabwe yes
Note/s 1 remarks
  • ASEAN – country is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations
  • EU – country is a member of the European Union organization.
  • OAPI – country is a member of Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle. The Bangui Agreement[2] that governs it provides a non-commercial FoP at Annex VII, Part I, Article 16; it is unsure if there is an effect in that provision's conflict with unrestricted FoP legal rights of 3 of the 17 member states: Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, and Mauritania.
Note/s 2 remarks
  • ESEAP – country is in a Wikimedia region known as ESEAP (ESEAP Hub)
Footnotes
  1. ↑ On Wikimedia Commons, Argentina is considered to have a de facto FoP for architecture, based on a perspective of an Argentine lawyer about permissible photographic reproductions of buildings (brought in a July 2010 discussion). However, it was put into question in two discussions (from December 2022, from September 2023), especially regarding the actual context of the Argentine lawyer's perspective, if that extends to commercial distributions of images or not. Also, contrary to a claim in the 2010 discussion that Argentina follows customary law in copyright, a Harvard article states that the country follows civil law system following the European system. See also c:Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Argentina#Freedom of panorama. On top of that, Infojustice.org tells of a proposal in 2017 to add more limitations/exceptions for the Argentine copyright law (Law No. 11.723), one of which would have been a freedom of panorama provision. Instead, most of the suggested exceptions were abolished, and the only surviving exception to be passed concerns free uses of works for persons with disabilities (PWDs), as proven by the resulting amendment law, Law No. 27.588 of November 11, 2020, on Amendments to Law No. 11.723 (WIPO copy).
  2. ↑ They have no copyright law.
  3. ↑ Church decrees govern papal works, but works of art and architecture are governed by Italian copyright law. Italy has no FoP so Vatican City has no FoP too. Refer to c:Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Vatican City#Freedom of panorama.


Council of Europe

See Talk:Pilipinas Panorama Community/Freedom of Panorama#FOP in Council of Europe

ASEAN + APEC

See Talk:Pilipinas Panorama Community/Freedom of Panorama#FOP in ASEAN + APEC


FoP Philippines Discussion Group

See main page: FoP Philippines Discussion Group
The FoP Philippines Discussion Group, or simply FoP-PHDG, functions as the FoP think-tank group of Pilipinas Panorama Community (PPC) — to focus on the study and advocacy of Freedom of Panorama (FoP), especially as it applies to the Philippine setting. The FoP-PHDG was formulated in 2023 as a platform for PPC members to share perspectives and updates on Philippine and global FoP developments

Objectives

  1. As a page to offer PPC's FoP adherents a repository of Freedom of Panorama (FoP) knowledge and discussion content.
  2. As a platform for ideas by PPC's FoP adherents to benefit Philippine Wikimedia communities and individual contributors.
  3. As a newsletter for FoP awareness and to espouse FoP's relevance to Philippine cultural heritage preservation.



References

  1. ↑ Dulong de Rosnay, Mélanie; Langlais, Pierre-Carl (2017). "Public artworks and the freedom of panorama controversy: a case of Wikimedia influence". Internet Policy Review. 
  2. ↑ a b Reyes, Mary Ann LL. (2021-11-28). "Changing landscape of copyright". The Philippine Star. 
  3. ↑ Stott, Rory (2016-04-07). "Freedom of Panorama: The Internet Copyright Law that Should Have Architects Up in Arms". Archify. 
  4. ↑ c:Commons:Licensing, Wikimedia Commons
  5. ↑ Commons:Freedom of panorama, Wikimedia Commons
  6. ↑ w:en:Wikipedia:Freedom of panorama, English Wikipedia
  7. ↑ c:Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Philippines#Freedom of panorama, Wikimedia Commons
  8. ↑ "Macahiya, Jayson: The Legal Dynamics Relevant to Public Art in the Philippines". AUSL Tech & Law. September 27, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2023. 
  9. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion_requests/Image:11th Jamboree Memorial.jpg, Wikimedia Commons
  10. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:The Angry Christ Mural of the Saint Joseph The Worker Parish Church.jpg, Wikimedia Commons
  11. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Main Office, Manila, Wikimedia Commons
  12. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Crown Regency Hotel.jpg, Wikimedia Commons
  13. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Divine Mercy Shrine (Misamis Oriental), Wikimedia Commons
  14. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Eagle of the North, Wikimedia Commons
  15. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:EDSA Shrine and c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:EDSA Shrine 2.jpg, Wikimedia Commons
  16. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Diorama of Rizal's Martyrdom, Wikimedia Commons
  17. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:GT International Tower.jpg
  18. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Iloilo International Airport
  19. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Kartilya ng Katipunan “The Life and Heroism of Gat Andres Bonifacio” Monument and Mural (Mehan Garden, Ermita, Manila) and Commons:Deletion requests/Bonifacio Shrine in Manila, Wikimedia Commons
  20. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Lion's Head (Kennon Road), Wikimedia Commons
  21. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:United Nations station, Wikimedia Commons
  22. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Photographs of the Leyte Landing Memorial and c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Leyte Landing Memorial, Wikimedia Commons
  23. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Malacañang Palace, Wikimedia Commons
  24. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:New Clark City Athletics Stadium, Wikimedia Commons
  25. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Oblation (University of the Philippines Diliman) and c:Commons:Deletion requests/Guillermo Tolentino statues, Wikimedia Commons
  26. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:People Power Monument.jpg and c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:People Power Monument, Wikimedia Commons
  27. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Philippine Arena, Wikimedia Commons
  28. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Philippine International Convention Center, Wikimedia Commons
  29. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Quezon Memorial Monument.jpg and c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files found with incategory:"Quezon Memorial Shrine", see also c:Commons:Undeletion requests/Archive/2020-09#File:Quezon memorial.jpg (failed undeletion request), Wikimedia Commons
  30. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:SM Mall of Asia, Wikimedia Commons
  31. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkhia Mosque, Wikimedia Commons
  32. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:TriNoma.jpg, Wikimedia Commons
  33. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:WTNaga HMMM A11.JPG, Wikimedia Commons
  34. ↑ c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Murals in Manila, Wikimedia Commons
  35. ↑ w:en:Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files/2012 June 15#File:Memorare Manila Monument.jpg, English Wikipedia
  36. ↑ w:en:Wikipedia:Files for discussion/2020 September 30#File:People Power Monument (EDSA-White Plains, Quezon City; 2014-12-03).jpg, English Wikipedia


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