I love this month loading screen BUT…
Dumal2015
Member Posts: 5 ★
Isn’t copyright infringement to use Nasa’s official images for commercial purpose?
That’s Pluto btw
That’s Pluto btw
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Jokes aside, this is what NASA says:
- If the NASA material is to be used for commercial purposes, including advertisements, it must not explicitly or implicitly convey NASA's endorsement of commercial goods or services.
- NASA should be acknowledged as the source of the material.
I remember when OG Miles n Luke Cage had animations copied from characters from other game. Kabam acknowledged the fact n took action.
But I would think since NASA is taxpayer funded as part of the government that serves the people, and it is not custom created content like their actual Logos would be, that they probably consider images taken as being public domain.
Now maybe if such an image were the principal focus of the content, that might warrant a mention of the source.
it ain’t nasa’s
Also, love NASA being brought up. It should happen more.
Nothing about this is improper, and it has nothing to do with the source. This would be an example of what’s called Fair Use. It takes the original image or work and is sufficiently transformative of it to create a new work in the eyes of the law. This assumes that these particular images are subject to any kind of trademark to begin with, which they may not be. But that has nothing to do with the source being a governmental entity, it would be because NASA chose not to implement such measures.
NASA, regardless of being an agency of the American government, can retain intellectual property (IP) rights and patents. As can all agencies.
IP is an incredibly dense and complex body of law, and not one I specialize in. Take my analysis with a grain of salt, but I believe that I’m correct on this.
And top notch observation, finding Pluto.
I also know the heart shaped Pluto terrain, but I wasn't expecting it on a game wallpaper.
Good stuff.
- Look at my roster
- What do I do now
- Explain the game
- Pointless poll #x
NASA typically allows images it shares publicly to be used commercially under certain guidelines including not having any identifiable logos or persons in them:
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html
Some copyright licencing info for those interested:
https://simmons.libguides.com/c.php?g=372344&p=2513461#:~:text=What is Fair Use?,from the copyright holder first.
Also: *%$£ THE IAU, PLUTO IS A PLANET!
I still wouldn’t have made a forum post to complain about it though.
NASA images are *functionally* in the public domain. There is basically no situation in which you’ll find yourself that runs afoul of NASA’s policies on this because they want these images to be used far and wide. However, they do clearly retain the ability to place restrictions on how the images are used (as evidenced by their media guidelines page dictating rules for certain, very specific situations and requiring credit to be given). This implies a degree of ownership, and legally speaking that is contradictory to a work being in the public domain. So despite having almost all of the trappings and consequences of public domain, it isn’t quite there.
tl;dr:
NASA images can be used for basically anything because NASA says they’re cool with it.
And below that is the Public Domain and Licensing info for the image, as specified with it's link from Wikipedia.
So while this one would not have been able to be used within the game itself because it contains the NASA Logo (although it is available for non-commercial use), the one of Pluto would not have that restriction. FYI, Pluto photo used was generated from NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft (2015).