Now this is an interesting development. Zahi Awass, the chair of Egypt’s Supreme council of Antiquities has announced a plan to make it law in all countries that anyone producing replicas of the pyramids and ancient relics of Egypt will have to pay royalties.

The full story from the BBC can be read here. It seems that the law will only apply to full scale replicas of any object in any Egyptian museum. However, he says that the law does not affect local and international artists producing replicas as long as they are not exact copies. Now this seems to be a totally pointless law for several reasons but the main reason being that as long as the copy is not an “exact” replica then that’s OK. Does that mean if the copy is 0.5 cm large or smaller then the law doesn’t apply? If the colour is slightly different? Or any number of other subtle differences for that matter.

Secondly, do the Egyptian government even have the right or power to pass international law? How can they enforce that outside of their own borders? I’m sure they don’t and they can’t.

Now the only reason this is of any interest to photographers is that Mr Hawass states that ‘Commercial Use’ of ancient monuments like the pyramids or the sphynx would also be controlled. That definition could quite easily be applied to stock photography and artistic photography if prints are to be sold. The question is whether ancient monuments can be controlled in that way? Presumably in the future, you would need to apply and pay for a permit or pay royalties in some way assuming the the law is even recognised outside of Egypts borders. And speculating further, if the law is made retrospective, then what about the hundreds of thousands of images already taken before the law is passed. Surely, this is a logistical and legal minefield in the making.

There is little doubt that the law will be passed according to the report but it will be interesting to see whether 3000 year old monuments can be subject to international copyright law or whether this move is taken seriously by anyone outside of Egypt.

Not quite in the same category as this but restrictions apply to commercial use of images of Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower at night and Uluru, previously known as Ayer’s Rock in Australia.