please empty your brain below

I am please it has been restored to its former splendour, it was a bit shabby when I went a few years ago, but still worth the visit. It must of taken a lot of Duraglit to polish it up again!
Lovely photos. Symmetry rules again (and again).
Jonathan Coe has written a very enjoyable novel about the exhibition, Expo 58. It's a bit of a skit on novels of that period and very funny.

Great photos DG.
Well,that looks a whole lot better and shinier than when I saw it. Mind you, that was in 1968! The ten years after the Expo had left its marks. Dull grey rain-streaked metal wasn't what we were expecting. The surrounding area was desolate scrubland,with no signs of any regeneration work. It was what I feared would happen to the Olympic park,when the party was over.
Try this link to control the webcam on top of the Atomium http://www.brussels.be/artdet.cfm/5678
AS a regular visitor to Brussels 21 years ago when my best-beloved was working over there, we "did" most of the sights, although I don't recall visits to the parliament being on offer then. The Atomium, and indeed the whole area, seemed very seedy and run down then. (It's the same age as me, but unlike me it has had a makeover since then)

If you want to see what it looked like then, it is the scene of the denouement of "The New Statesman" episode that is on London Live at 9:30 tonight (the second of the double bill).
http://www.londonlive.co.uk/programmes/the-new-statesman/4ae8b956 (14m-18m, 21m-end)
Beware DG! You might find yourself being sued for breach of copyright for publishing those pictures of the Atomium.

See here.

And it's also mentioned on the Wikipedia page.
Copyright: but http://www.atomium.be/AuthorsRights.aspx says "There are some cases however where use of the image of the Atomium is not restricted by any rights. ... This is the case namely where photographs are taken by private individuals and shown on websites, social media sites, blogs for no commercial purpose." Like this.

So, did you do the other Brussels sights? Grand Place/Grote Markt, Manneken Pis, Magritte, etc?
Looks good, looks interesting. Did you get any chocolate, being in Belgium and all? Or are you not into that?
I visited Brussels probably about 10 years ago, but ran out of time to get to the Atomium, it not being in the centre. Great report I think I will go back and visit it.
Anyone else think that DG's second photo looks like the Large Hadron Collider? Atoms could be pinged around the Atomium globes knocking quarks off each other. That's probably what it was really designed for. And the tourists were just more profitable.
Why waste time on chocolate when the country is full of some of the best beer in the world.
Years ago I remember in Brussels a Museum of Torture Instruments, and feeling pretty ill after visiting it.
I wish we had gone to the Atomium instead!
@Bronchitikat - perhaps not, unless wrapped around the innards of a Cadbury's Creme Egg?
Copyright in the Atomium - whatever Belgian copyright law says, if you publish it in the UK then it is UK copyright law that applies

Copyright Act etc 1988, Section 62:
Representation of certain artistic works on public display.
(1)This section applies to—
(a) buildings, and
(b) sculptures, models for buildings and works of artistic craftsmanship, if permanently situated in a public place or in premises open to the public.

(2) The copyright in such a work is not infringed by—
(b) making a photograph or film of it

(3) Nor is the copyright infringed by the issue to the public of copies, or the communication to the public], of anything whose making was, by virtue of this section, not an infringement of the copyright".


So, under English law, if you leave something lying around in public view, it is not an infringement of its copyright to take a photo of it or publish that photo.
Thanks @timbo I have often wondered about that, now you have provided a definitive answer.
I love the Atomium, and Brussels in general - my only beef is with the wildly over-priced seafood restaurants and the cheese cubes on sticks you get in bars??
@timbo - I'm not convinced that publishing a photo in the UK, which was patently taken in Belgium, means that there is no infringement of copyright.

Yes, as you say, there is no infringement under UK copyright law, but, strictly speaking, I think you could argue that copyright in Belgium was infringed by the photo being taken there in the first place. They would have to sue the photographer in Belgium, though.










TridentScan | Privacy Policy