A closer look
Nighttime photographs of the Eiffel Tower are technically illegal to distribute or sell for commercial purposes because the intricate light display illuminating the structure is heavily protected under French copyright law. Even though the massive iron tower itself entered the public domain decades ago, the specific lighting arrangement was added in nineteen eighty-five and remains the exclusive intellectual property of its creator. Therefore, every time you post a sparkling, heavily filtered boomerang of the Parisian skyline to your pathetic little travel blog with three subscribers, you are casually dabbling in international copyright infringement. Of course, the French government is entirely too busy smoking cigarettes and organizing national strikes to actually sue you for your poorly framed vacation snaps, but it is still nice to know you are technically an artistic outlaw
