Hotel Briig — fotografías, decisiones creativas e instrucción general

Expediente y fuentes

Nombre

Hotel Briig — fotografías, decisiones creativas e instrucción general

Cita

High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia, Pž-287/2023-2, ECLI:HR:VTS:2024:52, 4 April 2024

record kind

judicial_decision

Tribunal

High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia

Instancia

national commercial appellate court

Fechas

Decisión

2024-04-04

first instance

2022-11-14

Estado

final appellate judgment; defendant appeal dismissed and merits affirmed, costs partly varied

Resultado

Infringement and the orders to stop use, remove/destroy copies and publish the judgment were affirmed; HRK 4,000 moral damages and HRK 1,874 economic statutory payment were affirmed; costs were increased by EUR 91.25.

Resumen

The photographs were original because the photographer made free and creative choices in framing, angle, lighting and composition. Artistic quality, education, talent and an underlying general idea were not decisive. A person who supplies only an idea or general instructions is not thereby creator or coauthor.

Antecedentes

Photographer Marko Mihaljević made fifteen interior and exterior photographs of Hotel Briig under a commercial arrangement. Super Produkcija held exploitation rights. Studio180 obtained the photographs from the hotel owner, placed all fifteen on its website without authorization or author credit, and altered one by adding a parasol.

Historia procesal

The Zagreb Commercial Court, P-651/2020-31, 14 November 2022, found moral and economic infringement and granted injunctive, removal, publication and monetary relief. Defendant and both claimants appealed. The High Commercial Court dismissed the merits appeals, affirmed points I-X, and varied only EUR 91.25 of costs.

Cuestión jurídica

Were the photographs original works; did the architect/client's general idea or instructions make it author or coauthor; and did the unauthorized website use and alteration infringe?

Criterio

The photographs were original because the photographer made free and creative choices in framing, angle, lighting and composition. Artistic quality, education, talent and an underlying general idea were not decisive. A person who supplies only an idea or general instructions is not thereby creator or coauthor.

Fundamento decisivo

Originality lies in the author's expressed free and creative choices. The court applied harmonized EU standards and distinguished an unprotected idea/instruction from authorship of the resulting expression. Unauthorized reproduction, adaptation, communication and omission of attribution infringed the proven rights.

Límites

Human photography under the predecessor statute and EU originality doctrine, not a GenAI output case. It supports the distinction between expressive control and general instructions but does not quantify a prompt threshold.

Relevancia

doctrina-general

Referencias relacionadas

Peso del precedente

Strong national appellate merits application of harmonized originality doctrine; persuasive/direct within Croatian commercial litigation, without a claimed stare-decisis rule. Integración/votación: Three-judge panel; the published judgment identifies no dissent or vote breakdown, so unanimity is not asserted.

Fuente

Referencia

Hotel Briig — fotografías, decisiones creativas e instrucción general

Enlace

Consultar fuente

Autoridad

High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia

Tipo

primary_judicial_full_text_authenticated_copy

Tipo de evidencia

primary_judicial_full_text_authenticated_copy

Método de comprobación

Full judgment independently read in an exact reproduction carrying the official electronic-signature record 9-30867-24a4e and control 0d452-4709a-ec0b8; official decision URL retained.

Localizador

disposition and paras. 8-10, 12-12.4, 13-14.5 and 17-19

Verificación documentada

Sí