In article ,
Ken S. Tucker wrote:
Ok Tom, I build a $100 000 000 telescope on my $10 000 000 lot
then pay you $50 000 to use it take photos, then when I ask to see the
photo's, you say NO to me. Guess what Tom you ain't invited back ;-).

If I assume that you're going immediately to send the photos to my
competitor, then I think I have to say no, and I have not to use your
equipment under those terms. The problem isn't giving immediate
access to amateurs, it's that you can't do that without giving equal
access to competing pros - and the pros who haven't spent the time and
effort getting the offer to take the picture have then got an
advantage in resources over those who have. Short proprietary periods
solve that problem.

Or you could go for an entirely socialised system in which everyone
sticks in their requests, the data is obtained, and goes straight to
everybody immediately.

Cassini solves this by publishing JPEGs of their pictures as they're
taken, without the calibration information required to make them
particularly scientifically useful.

Tom