It sounds like a rather ridiculous thing for a township to do, but because they’ve grown tired of being exploited and abused by companies like Monstanto, which used beautiful images of their area to promote genetically modified crop seeds, the Tuscan town of San Quirico D’Orcia is trying to copyright its surrounding views and landscapes.
One of the town’s councilors says the move is not designed to hurt anyone, their intention being to merely protect the landscape from unfair use. He said that tourists and travel photographers will continue to be free to photograph and film anything they want, restrictions applying only to those trying to use material containing the town’s picturesque views for commercial/advertising purposes. To be allowed to do that, advertisers would first need to obtain permission from the municipality, failure to do so attracting fines and other penalties.
Now, I’m on the fence about this one. Even though the town is being very reasonable about who’s going be allowed to take what shots, I don’t see how natural landscapes can be “abused” or used “unfairly.” Taking a photo of some hills doesn’t steal anything from the land, and trying to make some money off of the natural landscape seems like a dickish move. I’d understand it if the whole region was carefully modeled by them, but it was nature that did that. They just happened to be there. On the other hand, I have a strong enough dislike for Monstanto to understand why they don’t want them taking pictures there. I just think they should find a more intelligent way to tell them to buzz off.
