Copyrights To Reach Deep Space

bs0d3 writes "Voyager 1 is expected to reach interstellar space soon. It will be the first made made object to cross the heliosphere, which is the final stop in our solar system. Voyager 1, famously contained a gold phonographic record. The record was filled with iconic sights, images, and sounds from earth, and the prevailing message, "we come in peace". The disc was [composed] by a man named Carl Sagan, and it contained many pieces of art, songs, and images, that are all copy-written. According to NASA, 'Most of the material they used was copyrighted by the creators/owners and Sagan had to get copyright releases in order to assemble the original record. Subsequently, Warner Multimedia was able to obtain copyright releases for the 1992 version of "Murmurs of Earth" .. Unfortunately, the book and CDROM are no longer being published and are hard to find as a set.'"

Comments

Do the editors even look at the submissions?

[Ultra64]

"It will be the first made made object "

"The disc was comprised by a man "

"that are all copy-written. "

Re:Do the editors even look at the submissions?

[93 Escort Wagon]

I fale to see your pint.

Re:Do the editors even look at the submissions?

[Anonymous Coward]

The majority of Indian English ... aren't in an environment where they're constantly surrounded by good examples of well-spoken English

OK, but it was their choice to go to America.

Re:Earth law vs universal law

[ATMAvatar]

Of course. This was a brilliant plan to spur on space innovation in the private sector by encouraging the copyright cartels to sue any alien civilization that dared play the record in public. No matter how many light years away the alien race may be, we can be assured that the copyrights will still be in force by the time voyager reaches them.

Re:Klingons

[b5bartender]

Litigation is a dish best served cold.

It will be a shame if our first contact...

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

... with aliens is a 30 second ad telling them 'Piracy is a crime'

Re:It will be a shame if our first contact...

[Mitchell314]

Heh, I can see the ads now: "You wouldn't steal a galactic assault cruiser . . ."

Not what that means...

[kryptKnight]

The disc was comprised by a man named Carl Sagan

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

Aliens join the rest of the world in hating AFACT.

[xQx]

Nice - First contact is made by an American lawyer who serves a DMCA violation to the aliens because they illegally copied the gold record to a digital format so they could play it in their spaceship.

The lawyer tries to explain the violation to the alien - but the alien is unable to understand how even though it has returned the gold record, it has still 'stolen' a copy. ... And we're off to a great start!

To the cloud!

[tepples]

That would be the Oort cloud

So it's copyrighted music in the cloud. How is this any more or less illegal than services like MP3tunes?

Re:What do you call a thousand lawyers...

[colinrichardday]

Nope, lawyers don't asphyxiate in space:

http://business.illinois.edu/broker/startrek.htm

Re:Klingons

[JWSmythe]

No, we're well prepared for it. Thanks to science fiction, we've been able to plan for a vast variety of potential intergalactic threats. In response, we've built ...

    umm ...

    Well, we've theorized that we might be able to change the trajectory of a rock, given about a decade to build something...

    Ya, we're screwed.

Re:Earth law vs universal law

[davester666]

Absolutely. Everyone would stop writing music, filming movies without the certain knowledge that alien civilizations with have to pay full retail for 'Star Trek: First Contact' for the next 100 or so years.

Re:Klingons

[PPH]

We could offer them the RIAA and MPAA as peace offering/sacrifices. Perhaps the overlords will allow the rest of us to live.

Brilliant plan

[captainpanic]

The brilliance of the plan is that by the time the Earth lawyers find out that the Klingons have been listening to our music, a couple of centuries will have past (with the speed of light and the size of our galaxy and all). Imagine the calculations for the lost revenues. :-)

Lets's hope they are copper ningis

[The Creator]

Which weigh about 40kg and will be arriving at the RIAA main office at about 12km/s.

Re:Earth law vs universal law

[drkim]

Can human apply the earth laws, such as copyrights, into other corners in the universe?

Yes. Unfortunately for us, the aliens will read the data on the disk and send back a message:

Thank you for your information. Our clients hold the universal copyright on RNA and DNA replication technology. This letter is official notification under Section A484615(d) of the Universal Millennium Copyright Act (”UMCA”), and we seek the removal of the aforementioned infringing material from your planet. I request that you immediately notify the infringers of this notice and inform them of their duty to remove the infringing material immediately, and notify them to cease any further replication of DNA or RNA on your planet in the future.

An enforcement detail will arrive in your system in one week to ensure compliance.

Thank you.

Re:Tracks on the record

[Hognoxious]

Mozart wouldn't fit, he used too many notes.