PARIS — Most people can agree that the Eiffel Tower in Paris is best viewed at night, when it lights up from top to bottom with thousands of twinkly lights. But hold on, before you Instagram a shot of this beloved icon, you should know that it’s actually illegal to take a picture of it at night.

Hard to believe, we know, but it’s true. According to the FAQ section of Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel, which owns and operates the tower, “The views from the Eiffel Tower are rights-free.” Permission and rights must be obtained from the company for the publication of photographs of the tower.

Snopes, the fact-checking site and reference source, explains that the Eiffel Tower itself is in the public domain, meaning that people can take as many photos of it as they wish during daylight hours. But come nightfall, the tower’s light show (which occurs for five minutes every hour from dusk until 1 a.m.) is technically owned by the artist.

We bet the artist, who first debuted the light show in 1985, never could have anticipated the birth of social media, where countless images and videos of the Eiffel Tower at night permanently reside. As such, no one has ever been brought to court over copyright infringement. So not to worry everyone, your selfies are perfectly safe.