Anne Frank House in Amsterdam Faces Copyright Dispute Over Online Edition

The Anne Frank House at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam, opened to the public on 3 May 1960, preserves the hidden annex where Anne Frank and seven others hid from the Nazis between 1942 and 1944. The museum displays the original rooms, the secret hiding place behind a bookshelf, and hosts permanent and temporary exhibitions about the Frank family, the Holocaust and related history.

In September 2021 the Anne Frank Foundation released an online scholarly edition of Anne Frank’s original manuscripts. The Anne Frank Fund, which holds the copyright to the diary, sued the foundation and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, alleging that the edition violated Dutch and European copyright rules by allowing access via VPNs and bypassing geographic restrictions. In February 2022, an Amsterdam court ruled the claims unfounded, emphasizing the importance of academic freedom and rejecting the Fund’s demands.