APOD and Copyright Violations

[Jack Harvey]

Here is an FYI for the group.  Yesterday our image  of M8 was lucky enough to be selected as APOD.  Today I received a copy of my image sans credits from one of the club officers of Northern Colorado Astronomy Club.  He innocently sends out what he considers interesting images or notes from the internet that he copies off sites he comes across to further the education of club members (something I am in favor of).  However the image this time has had some interesting surgery in that there is a image and the APOD description but the credit line between the two has been excised (something I am NOT in favor of).

In a separate letter to him I have informed him of the copyright violation and asked for the source of this image.  

Further this has been a topic of discussion on the CCDList in the USA.  This is NOT APODS fault, they credit your images.  However other sites are often taking your images and removing the copyright or credit line and using them for their own purpose or site.  And APOD is not the only source they pirate.

There is a web site which calls itself "NASA Images" which is offering all the APOD
images for free downloads without expressed permission of the authors. The main page
is at
http://www.nasaimages.org/

More disturbing is their download "terms and conditions" which claims
that many NASA images on the site are "NOT COPYRIGHTED". This
is absolutely false. See their terms and conditions page at
http://www.nasaimages.org/Terms.html

Just wanted to make you aware.  I believe all of us have no problem sharing our images for educational purposes, however proper copyright and credit lines need to be intact.

[Nocturnal]

That really sucks!

[mmirot]

Is APOD part of NASA? Does this mean they have the right to reproduce and distribute your image after it is submitted to APOD?

Also, NASA says on this sight they make an effort to ensure images are not copyrighted.
They have a complaint mechanism too. See how they respond.

Max

[RBA]

In my case, my images are not copyright. I'm not Lawrence Lessig but I do believe current copyright laws are outdated. I release my images under a "by-nc-nd" Creative Commons license. That means anyone can use my images for free and without permission as long as they always include the credit line I request "by Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSkyColors.com)", the image is not used for derivative works nor for profit. In my case, I feel that's a fair use of my images. I'm happy to release them under that license and I honestly don't care if anyone uses any of my images for free and without permission as long as they respect those conditions, so it does piss me off when I see someone not respecting them.

[Jack Harvey]

Agree.  Over the past 7 years that SSRO has been involved in astroimaging we have let many many people use our images for books, magazine covers, school. etc and all we ask is to get credit for producing the image.  We made a decision at the beginning to never charge for images or information from our site as long as the images are used for educational purposes and not pirated for profit.  That policy remains for our group.

[Niall Saunders]

I hear what everyone is saying about their willingness to allow images to be used for non-profit/non-commercial use, providing credit to the author is maintained. Highly commendable.

What about, for example, someone like me, who sees one of 'your' stunning images, and downloads it to a memory-stick and pops along to their local photo-printer, and comes back with a fantastic A3-size poster print? No names, no pack-drill.

Has copyright been broken there? After all, the picture - instead of 'hanging on my desktop' is now just 'hanging on my wall'. It wouldn't be getting sold or distributed - it would just be getting appreciated

The problem being that, if someone ELSE 'appreciates it', they would have no idea of its origin, or of all the efforts of the creator.

Cheers,

[Jack Harvey]

I don't see an issue.  Besides I think I know you well enough thru this forum that you would not make such a claim.  It would be like me showing someone a script "I wrote", which I had lifted from one of you guys<G>.  Of course I could not write one line of code if my life depended on it.  Anyway it is impossible for one to cover all the examples in this age of the net, etc.  It would be tilting at windmills to try, but the blatant examples where a site distributes your image and claims credit either by saying it is their image or not placing proper copyrights and credit info and thus passively claiming credit is what I was about.  Esp if that site has a "store" and offers such for sale.

Niall, you have my permission to wall paper your entire bedroom with my images, but you better check with the wife first.

[Niall Saunders]

Niall, you have my permission to wall paper your entire bedroom with my images, but you better check with the wife first

Thanks Jack - however, your offer could be interpreted in different ways:-

First, given a choice, my darling wife would have me sleeping in the observatory anyway - so I guess I could then choose to decorate as I please - assuming the cohabiting spiders didn't mind.

Second, my wife has always been partial to a man in a cowboy hat - so covering the bedroom with 'your' images might leave her quite happy. Of course, once again, I would still find myself with NO OPTION but to sleep in the sheds, but then with just ONE copy of 'your' image (oh, and a BB gun )

Cheers,

[mmirot]

Unless someone is selling prints or the images to other, I would not have a problem.  Most of roll with this.

It is when a for profit magazine, web site or book starts populating their product with the work of other that is a problem.

I wish I was good enough to find this a problem

[mmirot]

Jack I wanted to ask you a few questions about the land in NM skies area.
Specifically who takes care of the observatory and what does it cost.

My email is maxmirot@charter.net

Thanks

Max

[RBA]

What about, for example, someone like me, who sees one of 'your' stunning images, and downloads it to a memory-stick and pops along to their local photo-printer, and comes back with a fantastic A3-size poster print? No names, no pack-drill.

In the case of a by-nc-nd Creative Commons license you'd be breaking the license because you didn't respect the BY clause by not adding the required credit line. Would I find out? Likely not, of course. But your soul will burn in hell for eternity 

One problem with some people who use the BY clause in CC licenses for their work is that they do not specify the requirements for the credit line, so people who wish to use your work are left with their own "choice" of what the line of credits should be and how it should be displayed, despite the CC license specifies "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor".

In *my* case, next to the license link, there's a link that goes "See required attribution line here" and brings you to this page, where one can read the authorship line required and the following text: "Such credit line should be readable when looking at the photograph. That means you shouldn't include the credit line in such a way that a casual viewer of the image isn't able to read the credit line (for example using a font size that is very difficult to read). At the same time, it is suggested that the credit line doesn't distract the viewer from the image"

So if you print a poster of one of my images and the above requirement isn't met, you're not respecting the license. That doesn't mean I don't allow other uses of my image, but in that case you need permission - and in your case I'd probably tell you to the same thing Jack said: go and wallpaper your room with my images if you wish