Does anyone here bother with getting usage/property releases for buildings shot from public locations (I'm not talking interiors or those shot on private property.

We have never bothered to obtain them either in the US or Europe and have generaly been advised we don't need them for artistic or editorial publication (which is how we use the photogoraphs).

Most copyright law explicitly excludes such buildings from protection (eg the US, Canada, UK etc). And there is, apparently no solid legal basis for such releases in the above circumstances.

However, a couple of people have recently claimed we need them?

I know none of the photogorpahers who are well known for their urban or building photogorpahs (Todd Hiro, Sternnfeld, Tice, Friedlander, james etc) generally ever bother with this.

I know when I photogorpahed disneys Seaside community, they told me it was private property and I needed permission to photogrpah within it and/or use the photogoraphs (and a very hefty commercial fee...) - their lawyer also claimed the buildings were copyrighted, until we pointed out the section of the US Code which says very much to contrary and actually sanctions the exhibition and publication of photogrpahs of buildigns taken from a public location, at which point they mumbled and said err okay.. However, there are County roads which go through it - and it turned out there was nothing they could do if you restricted yourself to those loactions.

Anyone have experience to the contrary?

thanks