On 21/11/06, David Monniaux
<David.Monniaux(a)free.fr> wrote:
We're talking of Mr Jean Dupont, member of
Parliament from a pro-Europe
party, waging a reelection campaign on a theme of "with Europe, we go
beyond" using photos of ESA rockets, and ESA getting an angry complaint
from Dupont's euroskeptic opponent and his party.
(Apparently, this has happened, and of course they were at least able to
say that this happened in violation of their policies. It would be more
difficult for them to deal with people acting within their policies.)
So the problem here is that the euroskeptic opponent thinks this is
ESA's problem, and that ESA feels it has to go along with this idea.
That is: the problem you're describing is local politics rather than
that open content licences are problematic.
The significant point is that the complaint was taken seriously by
anybody at all. If somebody in the US complained about a NASA photo in a
supermarket ad, even the most timid NASA bureaucrat would feel safe in
showing the letter around the office for a laugh, and then pitching it
into the trash. The bureaucrat knows that even if the complainer somehow
got the attention of a news reporter, it would be for a segment on all
the nutjobs who waste NASA's time.
Stan