Hellenic Ministry of Culture draws new policies regarding the use of content depicting Greek cultural heritage owned by the State, such as pictures and videos of archeological sites, museums’ exhibits and monuments. More precisely, theMinistry plans the creation of an online digital library, from which any interested person or entity (e.g. photographers, film makers, magazines, TV channels) will have easy access to high quality content (pictures or videos) against the payment of a low fee. This will practically dispense users from demanding and obtaining the prior authorization from Ministry of Culture, which is in principle necessary for the use of the said content, since the sole payment of the respective fee of use will suffice.
It is noted that the authorization in question is not linked with copyright law, given that the depicted objects of cultural heritage have generally fallen into the public domain. Indeed, according to article 46(1) of the Law N.3028/2002 for the protection of Antiquities and of cultural heritage in general “a prior authorization is needed for any production, reproduction and public communication or creation of databases with pictures of casts, copies or images of monuments belonging to the State, buildings that are either located in archeological sites and historical places or isolated, movable objects located in public museums or exhibitions, made by any entity or person other than the State, the Fund of Archeological Resources and the Organization of Greek Culture Promotion S.A for direct or indirect economical or commercial purposes, with any manner and means, including electronic and digital means, internet, telecommunication or other networks.”