Is Taking a Photo of a Building Copyright infringement?

A viewer yesterday asked if it was permitted to make a painting from a photo that he took of a building on a college campus. He was told by campus authorities that is was not permissible under copyright law to create a painting from a photo of a building, that it was copyright infringement. This is incorrect.

Recall that authors of creative works have rights in their creations as soon as the creation is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” This means that the architect has rights to his or her architectural plans the moment they are put on paper. As creators, they also have the right to prevent others from copying their work, including the creation of any “derivative works.” A derivative work is any method of “recasting” or making a new version of the original work. So by that logic, isn’t a photograph of a building a derivative work, and a painting created from that photograph also a “derivative work?” Yes, but the rules for creating derivative works from buildings visible in public are different.

United States Copyright law explicitly protects architectural works, and an architect or designer can register both the drawings of the building and the technical drawings for the building, but when a building is “located or ordinarily visible from a public place” copyright law limits the scope of the creator’s copyright. With respect to architectural works that have been constructed, the copyright owner cannot prevent others from making, distributing, or displaying paintings or photographs of the building so long as the building is viewable in a public place.

This means that anyone can photograph or make a painting of a public building.  You don’t need permission to photograph it, paint it, or make any “pictorial representations” of the building.  

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