The Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle and was originally intended to stand for only 20 years. Today, it is protected by European copyright law, and people cannot sell or publish night photographs of the illuminated tower without official permission. The tower itself is in the public domain, but the lighting effects installed in 1985 are still protected. During World War I, a radio transmitter in the tower helped hold off German invaders, and Eiffel used an apartment at the top for meteorological observations and experiments.
French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel designed his now famous wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars to celebrate the 1889 Exposition Universelle, a world’s fair held in Paris. The permit for the tower stipulated that it would stand for only 20 years, and in 1909 the city had plans to tear it down. Those plans have changed, however, and today the Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognizable structures in the world, photographed thousands of times a day. But according to European copyright law, people cannot sell night photographs of the illuminated tower or publish them in magazines without official permission. Technically, it’s even illegal to post them on social media, although this has never been enforced. The tower itself is in the public domain, but the lighting effects installed by Pierre Bideau in 1985 are still protected by European Union law.
Highlights of a French Tower:
The main objective of the law is to limit the unauthorized commercial use of night photos and videos. It would be costly for La Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel to impose a ban on all Facebook users who post a snapshot of the illuminated tower.
In 1914, during World War I, a radio transmitter located in the tower disrupted German communications and helped hold off the German invaders’ advance on Paris.
For a time, Eiffel used an apartment at the top of the tower to conduct meteorological observations and perform experiments relating to air resistance on falling objects.
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