The photographical reproduction of this work is covered under the article § 59 of the German copyright law, which states that "It shall be permissible to reproduce, by painting, drawing, photography or cinematography, works which are permanently located on public ways, streets or places and to distribute and publicly communicate such copies. For works of architecture, this provision shall be applicable only to the external appearance."
As with all other “limits of copyright by legally permitted uses”, no changes to the actual work are permitted under § 62 of the German copyright law (UrhG).
This work might not be available under a free license in the United States because it is based on an artwork or sculpture that may be protected by copyright under U.S. law. (Commons is hosted in the United States and as such, U.S. law is applicable.)
In the source country of the artwork or sculpture, taking photographs of such works permanently located in a public place does not generally infringe on their copyright, under a principle known as "freedom of panorama".
In U.S. law, there is no freedom of panorama for artwork or sculptures, and under the choice-of-law principle lex loci protectionis, U.S. courts might apply U.S. freedom of panorama standards to this work, rather than the standards of the source country. However, in practice, it is unsettled whether and how this approach would be applied in real-world U.S. legal cases involving freedom of panorama elements.
The current policy on Commons is to accept photos of artwork and sculptures that are covered by freedom of panorama in their source country. This policy may change in the future, depending on the outcome of community discussions and new case law.
This is not a valid license tag on Commons; this file must be usable under freedom of panorama in its source country or it will be deleted.
