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