Middle East News
Egypt to charge royalties for commercial replicas of antiquities
Dec 26, 2007, 19:29 GMT
Cairo - Egypt's government is drawing up legislation that would levy royalties on exact replicas of museum pieces and important monuments, such the pyramids and the sphinx, which are made for commercial use, its chief antiquities chief told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Wednesday.
Under the new law, any reproduction of exact replicas of ancient monuments, be they photographs, online videos or pictures or statues for commercial purposes, would require the approval of the Egyptian government, Zahi Hawas, the head of the country's Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained.
Countries, individuals or companies making such replicas would have to pay royalties.
Reproductions of ancient monuments and museum pieces made for scientific purposes are exempted from royalty payments, according to Hawas.
International themes parks and hotels using replicas, yet not exact ones, of the pyramids and other ancient Egyptian monuments would not be affected by the new copyright law.
Egypt will reproduce copyrighted replicas of monuments that would be sold commercially, Hawas said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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