Editing Atomium (section)

==Worldwide copyright claims==
{{Further|Freedom of panorama#Belgium}}
[[File:Atomium 010-censored.png|thumb|A photograph of the Atomium, censored due to lack of [[freedom of panorama]] rights at the time]]

[[SABAM]], Belgium's society for collecting copyrights, has claimed worldwide [[intellectual property]] rights on all reproductions of the image via the United States [[Artists Rights Society]] (ARS).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chillingeffects.org/fairuse/notice.cgi?NoticeID=760 |publisher=Chillingeffects.org |date=14 July 2003 |title=Such unlicensed reproduction and use of artwork on any Internet site with public access is considered in violation of the worldwide intellectual property rights of the rightsholders, including without limitation, copyright, trademark rights and moral rights |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=23 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140723004918/http://www.chillingeffects.org/fairuse/notice.cgi?NoticeID=760 |url-status=dead }}</ref> For example, SABAM issued a demand that a United States website remove all images of the Atomium from its pages.<ref name="macuser"/> The website responded by replacing all such images with a warning not to take photographs of the Atomium, and that A.S.B.L. Atomium will sue any individual or group if they show the photographs to anyone.<ref name="macuser"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/42.php |title=Atomium, The :: Boulevard du Centenaire, Brussels, Belgium |publisher=Glass Steel and Stone |quote=Even if you are an American and think you are protected by U.S. copyright law Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 120, you will still be sued. |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060313135640/http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/42.php |archive-date=13 March 2006 }}</ref> SABAM confirmed that permission is required.<ref name="macuser">{{cite news|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/macuser/news/190266/100-photoshoppers-wanted-to-erase-copyright-building.html |title=100 'photoshoppers' wanted to erase copyright building |author=Simon Aughton |work=MacUser News |date=21 April 2008 |quote='Since its creation, the Atomium is a copyrighted monument and any reproduction of its image in a publication or on a website must be accompanied by a prior authorisation request to the rightholders or to Sabam,' a spokeswoman said. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080525235525/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/macuser/news/190266/100-photoshoppers-wanted-to-erase-copyright-building.html |archive-date=25 May 2008 }}</ref>

Ralf Ziegermann remarked<ref>{{cite web |url=http://zeigermann.com/cartoonist/2008/01/05/atomium-and-expo-58 |title=Atomium and Expo '58 |work=The Cartoonist |author=Ralf Ziegermann |date=5 January 2008 |access-date=16 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512204759/http://zeigermann.com/cartoonist/2008/01/05/atomium-and-expo-58/ |archive-date=12 May 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> on the complicated [[copyright]] instructions on the Atomium's website specific to "private pictures".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.atomium.be/page/Copyright-photo---Foto-copyright.aspx |title=Copyright photo |publisher=Official blog of the Atomium & Expo 58 |date=2008 |quote=In the precise and exclusive case of information articles related to the festivities of the fiftieth birthday of the Atomium and of Expo 58, private pictures intended for non-commercial and non-promotional purposes, published in low resolution (max. 600 pixels wide / 72 dpi), are free from copyrights. However, the copyright © Sabam 2008 – www.atomium.be must be mentioned. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080701230956/http://blog.atomium.be/page/Copyright-photo---Foto-copyright.aspx |archive-date=1 July 2008 }}</ref> The organisers of Belgian heritage, Anno Expo (planning the 50th anniversary celebrations of Expo 58), in the city of [[Mechelen]] announced a "cultural guerrilla strike" by asking people to send in their old photographs of the Atomium and requested 100 [[photo manipulation|photoshoppers]] to paint over the balls.<ref name="embe">{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905231141/http://netlabelism.net/node/287 |url=http://netlabelism.net/node/287 |title=The balls of Brussels |work=embe |date=10 April 2008 |archive-date=5 September 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{URL|http://www.anno-expo.eu/}} {{in lang|nl}}</ref> SABAM responded that they would make an exception for 2008 and that people could publish private photographs for one year only on condition they were for non-commercial purposes.<ref name="embe"/> Anno Expo later announced they had censored part of their own report due to "complications" and referred to a meeting they had with SABAM.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.anno-expo.eu/nl/news/88 |title=Belangrijk bericht aan de bezoekers / inzenders / photoshoppers / lezers |language=nl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514034145/http://www.anno-expo.eu/nl/news/88 |archive-date=14 May 2008 |access-date=28 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Mechelen's mayor, [[Bart Somers]], called the Atomium copyright rules absurd.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indymedia.be/nl/node/26964 |title=Sabam in het nauw |author=Christophe Callewaert |date=9 April 2008 |language=nl |work=[[Independent Media Center|Indymedia Belgium]] }}</ref>

From the Atomium's website, the current copyright restrictions exempt private individuals under the following conditions:<ref>[http://www.atomium.be/Search.aspx?search=photo#/AuthorsRights.aspx Atomium.be copyright], retrieved 26 March 2010.</ref>

{{Blockquote|This is the case where photographs are taken by private individuals and shown on private websites for no commercial purpose (the current trend for photo albums).<br />In accordance with legislation, usage rights for the image of the Atomium would naturally extend to 1 January 2076, in other words, the seventieth anniversary of André Waterkeyn's death.}}

In the summer of 2015, Belgian political party [[Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten|Open Vld]], part of the then-ruling [[Michel I Government]], proposed a bill to enable [[freedom of panorama]] in Belgium. The bill was enacted into law in June 2016, allowing pictures of the Atomium, and other public buildings under copyright, to be legally distributed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.demorgen.be/binnenland/selfies-aan-atomium-weldra-helemaal-legaal-b7cd1c16/|title=Selfies aan Atomium weldra helemaal legaal|date=10 May 2016 |publisher=demorgen.be|access-date=27 March 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/article_body.pl?language=nl&caller=summary&pub_date=2016-07-05&numac=2016011277|title=Moniteur Belge – Belgisch Staatsblad|publisher=ejustice.just.fgov.be|access-date=27 March 2017}}</ref>