David Monniaux wrote:
Gregory Maxwell a écrit :
When I pointed out that material related to the
ESA should be Free I
wasn't attempting to make some grand argument about freedom, but
rather a more pragmatic reflection on the nature of space programs:
They aren't in business to generate pretty pictures,
That's exactly one of the problems. Since their line of work is building
launchers and the like,
they've largely off-loaded the tasks of taking pictures and maintaining
pictures databases to
external contractors. Also, since their job is not to provide a database
of pictures free for
advertisers to use, they buy the rights to these pictures from the
external contractors only for
information and education purposes. Buying them for all possible
commercial uses, even if
possible, would be more costly and wouldn't be in their scope of work.
What are the odds of getting interested Wikipedians in to take the
pictures instead? Contractors cost money, getting pictures taken for
free in exchange for free licensing seems like a better deal for ESA.
Lest one is concerned about amateur-quality work, I suspect that if ESA
were to publicly announce inside access for ten photographers, unpaid
but credited by name, they would have more than enough applications to
be able to accept only the best.
I also think WP could do more to cynically play on European chauvinism
than it has so far. 1/2 :-) A public statement by Jimbo, saying
something like "we will not accept unfree ESA images in WP, and while we
don't want WP to present a US-only view of space exploration, it's up to
the Europeans to fix this", would likely get reported widely, and
hopefully put some pressure on ESA to change what is at best a sloppy
practice.
Stan