A Swedish Supreme Court ruling that a database of photographs of public art run by Wikimedia Sweden violated copyright law may have implications for individuals posting images on the Internet. The court ruled April 4 that the website offentlig-konst.se operated by Wikimedia Sweden was not covered by an exception in Swedish and EU law that is designed to allow public artwork to be photographed without a infringing copyrights. "It clarifies that authorization is required for those who want to publish databases of art on the Internet. There are many major Internet players that publish art and we want to see a unification of the artists' rights and contracts," said Erik Forslund, head image rights negotiator for Sweden's Visual Arts Copyright Society (BUS), which launched the infringement action, told Bloomberg BNA.
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