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Are Hubble photos copyrighted?



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 6th 05, 05:39 AM
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Default Are Hubble photos copyrighted?

Being that this marvel of modern technology was funded by US taxpayer
money, I would think that that data that it captures is public domain.
Would that then mean that one could reproduce the lovely photos without
paying royalties? I thought that maybe US citizens have free access to
the photos the same way that universities had free access to DARPANET
before the creation of the WWW and ISPs took over. I just have a stupid
idea....

  #3  
Old February 6th 05, 07:25 AM
Stephen Tonkin
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wrote:
Being that this marvel of modern technology was funded by US taxpayer
money, I would think that that data that it captures is public domain.


See:
http://www.stsci.edu/institute/Copyright

I thought that maybe US citizens have free access to
the photos


We all have free access to them. IANAL, but I do not think there is any
legal mechanism for restricting public domain to the citizens of a
particular nation; for one thing, the logistics of enforcing that sort
of restriction would be horrendous! Public domain means everybody
everywhere.

Best,
Stephen

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  #4  
Old February 6th 05, 09:34 AM
CLT
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In this case, the copyright means that if you are going to copy them, copy
them right --- nice clean copies that people can enjoy.

Other than that, they are free to everyone to use. That's what the public in
public domain means.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/

Are you interested in understanding optics?
Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATM_Optics_Software/

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oups.com...
Being that this marvel of modern technology was funded by US taxpayer
money, I would think that that data that it captures is public domain.
Would that then mean that one could reproduce the lovely photos without
paying royalties? I thought that maybe US citizens have free access to
the photos the same way that universities had free access to DARPANET
before the creation of the WWW and ISPs took over. I just have a stupid
idea....



  #7  
Old February 6th 05, 04:21 PM
Davoud
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:
Not only that, but if you modify an image, even if that simply
means adding a border* around it, then you may copyright the image
as your own!
*
http://www.astrographics.com/Posters/POS0010.html

Not exactly. You may copyright the resulting work of art as a whole --
which is comprised of the Hubble image, your border, the caption that
you wrote, the way in which you use the type faces (on which someone
else holds a copyright, but which you use under license); but you may
not copyright the Hubble image.

If I buy your poster and cut away everything that you added, leaving
only the Hubble image, your copyright goes away. This would also hold
if I bought your literary masterwork and cut out the word "the." I
would be free to incorporate that word into my own best-seller.

Davoud
 




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