Why Photos of the Eiffel Tower at Night are Illegal

Alot of the conversation I have seen so far has been US-centric. That's fair, given that this was posted during US business hours, but for the US I don't really think this discussion applies as much. Works created by the United States Government are not covered by copyright in the US, effectively making them public domain _in the US_. See [LINK] "But—", you say, "—the code the NSA is publishing has a license attached!" Indeed, that confused me too, until I found the answer at [LINK] : >…copyright exclusion for works of the U.S. Government is not intended to have any impact on protection of these works abroad (S. REP. NO. 473, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 56 (1976)). Therefore, the U.S. Government may obtain protection in other countries depending on the treatment of government works by the national copyright law of the particular country. Copyright is sometimes asserted by U.S. Government agencies outside the United States. So, Public Domain within the US, and Copywritten (but OSS-licensed) outside of the US. My understanding is that copyright in EU countries is much more complicated. For example, apparently the view of the Eiffel Tower at night is copyrighted. See [VIDEO] As for anything Classified in the US, there are laws controlling distribution. So, take something GPL-licensed: If you take, use, and modify the software, you are not required to provide the code unless you distribute the product to others. See the question "Since U.S. Government works are not protected by copyrigh

On a related note, it is illegal to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night but NOT during the day[0]. It's the lighting system and its 'likeness' that cannot be reproduced. A brief search and I don't think anyone has been prosecuted[1]. There are plenty of pictures everywhere that probably don't have proper licensing. Perhaps those who want to use it commercially can get permission relatively easily? [0] [VIDEO] [1] [LINK]

You may well own the photo but not the subject of the photo. I believe this means that you can not sell the photo without also acquiring a license to the subject. I imagine that this is the same as taking a photo of a stock image. That doesn't make any sense. Reminds me of why you can't take a photo of the Eiffel Tower at night. [VIDEO]