Hyperallergic reports that the Reiss Engelhorn Museum (REM) in Mannheim, Germany, filed a lawsuit on Oct. 28 against the Wikimedia Foundation for "making high-resolution images of public domain artworks from its collection available for download."

The museum contests the availability of 17 images of artworks that an in-house professional photographer took for the museum's usage.

Wikimedia contends that the artworks are in the public domain and rightfully should be shared with people worldwide.

"Copyright law should not be misused to attempt to control the dissemination of works of art that have long been in the public domain, such as the paintings housed in the Reiss Engelhorn Museum,” wrote Wikimedia Foundation’s Legal Director, Michelle Paulson, and General Counsel, Geoff Brigham, in a blog post.