djb

I have a vague memory of when this type of copyright law came into being, even in Canada. The whole "lighting setup being an art work" or whatever phrasing was the same thing, and if I recall (and it was a long time ago, I may not have the details right) it applied to shooting other buildings and whatnot, and using the images commercially, ie in image banks and such.
What I do remember was thinking how bloody daft that sounded, but as I was only shooting a bit of stock stuff back then, it was never a problem for me.
As a photographer, what bugged me was that a good photo isnt because of the subject generally, but the natural lighting, camera placement and all that, so it seemed over the top to say that lighting on a building or whatever was a copyrighted "thing" in itself....but there you go, these laws came into place and probably are still applicable (but again, Im not properly informed).