Dan Drake wrote:
On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 13:00:12 UTC, "Poor, Edmund W" Edmund.W.Poor@abc.com wrote:
I think this just means that, if a particular satellite image reveals important military information, the government is allowed to keep it secret -- instead of being REQUIRED BY LAW to make it public, i.e., reveal it to enemies.
I really doubt that the typical "map showing my house" or "aerial view of my community" is in any jeopardy.
Ah, well, that's because you conservatives have complete trust in the Government to behave decently and reasonably on its own, without oversight by the citizens.
:-)
One thing I noticed is that the article mentions images created by private companies and then bought for use by the government. It occurs to me that people might have been using FOIA as an endrun to avoid paying the companies for their images - find out that the government happens to be one of their customers, demand copies from the government under FOIA, and then use the images for free "because it's from the government".
I'm no conservative, but if a company has put up their own satellite and network, I think they're as deserving of making a profit from it as the portrait photographer down the street.
Stan