Slashdot Mirror


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.'"

52 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Klingons by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Say piss on your your copyrights........

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    1. Re:Klingons by b5bartender · · Score: 5, Funny

      Litigation is a dish best served cold.

    2. Re:Klingons by PPH · · Score: 2

      I see the beginnings of an intergalactic war. This cannot end well for humanity.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    3. Re:Klingons by sjames · · Score: 2

      I'd love to watch the RIAA legal staff get taken out by Orion pirates.

    4. Re:Klingons by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    5. Re:Klingons by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

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

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    6. Re:Klingons by fatphil · · Score: 2

      We come in peace; sue to kill?

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
  2. Do the editors even look at the submissions? by Ultra64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "It will be the first made made object "

    "The disc was comprised by a man "

    "that are all copy-written. "

    1. Re:Do the editors even look at the submissions? by phaedrus5001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I'm starting to think that on Slashdot, the word 'editor' has a far different meaning than the one I'm familiar with...

      --
      "It's a trick. Get an axe."
    2. Re:Do the editors even look at the submissions? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

      I fale to see your pint.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:Do the editors even look at the submissions? by geezer+nerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In many different forms of printed material I see today, it seems quite apparent that "editor" means "spell checker program". I rarely see misspelling typos any more, but I see many, many instances of misused words that are correct, well-defined words, just not suitable for the context in which they appear. The odd instances in this article are of that type.

    4. Re:Do the editors even look at the submissions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

    5. Re:Do the editors even look at the submissions? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Informative

      Remeber the 'Tyson Homosexual' incident? A news site had an editorial policy forbidding the use of the word 'gay' and requiring 'homosexual' instead (It was a very conservative site, so they probably thought homosexual sounds scarier). The editorial policy was enforced by search-replace, so when they ran a story on an athlete named Tyson Gay, the search-replace did its job.

  3. Re:Earth law vs universal law by ATMAvatar · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --
    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  4. It will be a shame if our first contact... by Lord_of_the_nerf · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    1. Re:It will be a shame if our first contact... by Mitchell314 · · Score: 5, Funny

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

      --
      I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
  5. Not what that means... by kryptKnight · · Score: 4, Funny

    The disc was comprised by a man named Carl Sagan

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

    --
    Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -Aldous Huxley
  6. Aliens join the rest of the world in hating AFACT. by xQx · · Score: 3, Funny

    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!

  7. Heliosphere the final stop in our solar system? by FridayBob · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nope. That would be the Oort cloud and it's way, way further out.

  8. What do you call a thousand lawyers... by Bonker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...asphyxiating in the cold reaches of interstellar space?

    Money well spent.

    I hope that in centuries to come, our descendants will look back on copyright and 'intellecutal property' as a stupid little social experiment that became a painful learning experience.

    'Man, I'm glad we don't to go through that crap. Can you believe they had to PAY for data?!'

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
    1. Re:What do you call a thousand lawyers... by colinrichardday · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nope, lawyers don't asphyxiate in space:

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

  9. To the cloud! by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?

  10. Millions of years from now... by Trashcan+Romeo · · Score: 2

    ... Voyager will reach another solar system. Mickey Mouse will still be under copyright.

  11. I spent a decade searching for the CD. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I spent a long time searching for a copy of the CD. I scoured every used bookstore I could find. I found multiple copies of the book, but never the CD. Couldn't even find it on ebay. Finally, someone on Demonoid put up a torrent. I contacted the original seeder and he had searched long and hard just like me. It's a remarkable collection of music. Such a shame the music we chose to share with the universe as a testament of who we are cannot be shared amongst ourselves.

  12. Re:Earth law vs universal law by mug+funky · · Score: 2

    the extraterrestrials will pay their damages in the form of 3 ningis, delivered in cash to the RIAA.

  13. Tracks on the record by seandiggity · · Score: 5, Informative

    Greeting From The Secretary General Of The UN
    Greetings In 55 Languages
    UN Greetings & Whale Greetings
    The Sounds Of Earth
    J. S. Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 In F, First Movement
    Java, court gamelan - Kinds Of Flowers
    Senegal, percussion - Tchenhoukoumen
    Zaire - Pygmy Girls' Initiation Song
    Australian Aborigine songs - Morning Star And Devil Bird
    Mexico - El Cascabel (performed by Lorenzo Barcelata)
    Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
    Papua New Guinea - Men's House Song
    Japan, shakuhachi - Cranes In Their Nest (performed by Coro Yamaguchi)
    J. S. Bach - Gavotte En Rondeaux, from the Partitia No. 3 In E Minor For
    Mozart - The Magic Flute, Queen Of The Night Aria, No. 14

    Georgia, chorus - Tchakrulo
    Peru - Panpipes And Drum Song
    Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven - Melancholy Blues
    Azerbaijan Bagpipes - Ugam
    Stravinsky - Rite Of Spring, Sacrificial Dance
    J. S. Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude And Fugue In C, No. 1
    Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, First Movement
    Bulgaria - Izlel Je Delyo Hagdutin (sung by Valya Balkanska)
    United States - Navajo Night Chant
    Holborne - Fairie Round, from Paueans, Gaillards, Almains, And Other Short A
    Solomon Islands - Melanesian Panpipes
    Peru - Wedding Song
    China, Ch'in - Flowing Streams (performed by Kuan P'ing-hu)
    India, Raga - Jaat Kahan Ho (sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar)
    Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was The Night
    Beethoven - String Quartet No. 13 In B Flat, Opus 130, Cavatina

    ...if you're looking for either "Murmurs of Earth" or the CD-ROM, just ask a Swedish website and click on a magnet or two.

    --
    Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
    1. Re:Tracks on the record by Celarent+Darii · · Score: 2

      Interesting to note that J. S. Bach has 3 pieces on the disk, and I would add, rightfully so ! If anyone was to represent Western Music, it would certainly be Bach.

    2. Re:Tracks on the record by cpu6502 · · Score: 2

      Here's an article I just read this morning that seems appropriate:

      You Never Get a Seventh Chance to Make a First Impression: An Awkward History of Our Space Transmissions

      http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/you-never-get-a-seventh-chance-to-make-a-first-impression-an-awkward-history-of-our-space-transmissions/

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    3. Re:Tracks on the record by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

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

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  14. So what's the point here? by DerekLyons · · Score: 2

    Seriously? What is the point?

  15. The ISS seems to be in a area of lax copyright law by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The ISS seems to be in a area of lax copyright law.

    As they can easily get TV shows, first run moves (still in movie theaters)

    "If the crew wants specific movies, music or TV shows, we can uplink them to the server and they can then access them from any computer."

    "Crew members aboard the ISS can request specific films and TV shows to be uploaded to a central file server, which they can then watch on any of the Station's laptops."

    http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/interview-the-space-stations-it-guys-49304003/

    And I don't think they run windows and I don't think Hollywood likes a very open media server with out a direct internet link.

  16. Re:"We come in peace"? by siddesu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I go out for a drink with Ted from time to time and I can assure you that he pictures himself slashing the throat of the CFO, taking CFO's pretty secretary right on the bloody desk, and then taking over the position all day long.

  17. Re:Earth law vs universal law by davester666 · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  18. copyrights... by redneckmother · · Score: 2

    Dunno if I'm the only one who thinks so, but if the copyright holder ceases / refuses to publish a work, I believe that anyone should be free to make a copy of the work. Just sayin'.

  19. Re:Earth law vs universal law by camperslo · · Score: 2

    Anyway already TV signals have gone out many light years, and they were theoretically copyrighted.

    Some, like the sci-fi show from the early 50's Tales of Tomorrow, are now public domain and have bounced back to Earth landing at archive.org

    http://archive.org/search.php?query=Tales%20of%20Tomorrow%20AND%20collection%3Atelevision

  20. Re:The plan is... by JWSmythe · · Score: 3, Insightful

        Nah, by the time Voyager gets to them, they've had years of radio and TV broadcasts pass them. They'll already know about copyright, and more importantly how Earth has planned to treat virtually every alien species. Kill them. Kill them with bullets. Kill them with ray guns. Kill them with fire. Kill them with nukes. If they didn't already have advanced weaponry, they'll have it built before they make first contact.

        At this time, if they met with Voyager, they'd only be about 15 hours behind on our broadcasts.

    --
    Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  21. Re:"We come in peace"? by DeSigna · · Score: 2

    Some are striving to overcome our violent with faiths such as christianity. Humanity cannot achieve a Utopian society through humanism. Star Trek was a lie and were are more like the "mirror" universe than you would care to admit.

    I see your problem right there. Arguably, more wars have been declared for a religion, either directly (eg: Crusades) or indirectly as a justification (many colonial wars) than wars that have been stopped due to religion. Even the distinction between those 2 examples is hazy. Organised religion is just another method our societies group ourselves into "us" and "them".

    Looking at the past couple of hundred years of our history, it's been a general social trend to avoid the upheaval and horror of war - access to information and an increased voice of the people in government has helped, not to mention the general populous being far better educated and having much more free time to consider the results of their actions than a few hundred years ago. Additionally, society is shedding the crutches of religion as we better understand ourselves and the world around us - just look how much the old faiths are thrashing around, making noise, trying to save themselves. Humanity is still far from peaceful, and we're still a warlike bunch, but there is far more social pressure for nations to not slap each other in the face over a minor tiff. It's social and memetic evolution.

  22. That record is a shame by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2

    It's actually very representative of the two-faced attitude of humanity: the message of peace in the record is delivered by a former Nazi.

    That's the real problem with this record, not the fact that it's copyrighted.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  23. "Copy-written"? by J'raxis · · Score: 2

    "Copy-written"?

  24. Re:Aliens wouldn't be bothered but we'd be screwed by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    Wrong.

    Did you buy that ID on eBay?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  25. Brilliant plan by captainpanic · · Score: 4, Funny

    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. :-)

    1. Re:Brilliant plan by hlavac · · Score: 2

      Imagine the calculations for the lost revenues. :-)

      They will not be any more ridiculous than they already are.

  26. Lets's hope they are copper ningis by The+Creator · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --

    FRA: STFU GTFO
  27. Re:Earth law vs universal law by rilister · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, if you're willing to trust uncited Wiki-facts, Carl Sagan negotiated with the rights-holders specifically to get permission for playing the pieces of music copyright-free outside of the solar system. It's a cool work-around: of course pretty much any recorded performance has copyright restrictions, but Carl Sagan figured the disk itself wasn't intended to be played by any human so legally he just needed rights outside some geographically restricted zone (say, the entire solar system) to have all the rights he needed to create potentially the widest distribution mixtape of all time.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

    --
    'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore
  28. Copy written has a different from copyrighted. by 91degrees · · Score: 2

    Copy-writing is the act of writing copy. Copy being the text of an piece of media. I guess technically this is true - much of the copy had been written. I'm not sure this is what you meant.

    Copyright is the exclusive right to make a copy. Much of the material has been copyrighted. This is presumably what was meant here.

  29. Re:Earth law vs universal law by Arancaytar · · Score: 2

    100 years? Even the Earth is going to stay habitable for several hundred million years. We're looking at billions or trillions of years of sentient life in the universe, maybe much more. The copyright is going to stay around for at least an order of magnitude beyond that.

  30. Re:"We come in peace"? by Patch86 · · Score: 2

    Eh. We have been known to (temporarily) come in peace when we don't have the power to back up the alternative(Apropos of the 4th of July, see the English colonial activities in the new world).
     

    Are you using The American War of Independence as an example of coming in peace?

    If anything, it's a fantastic example of the opposite- how we use war as a first resort to solving our problems. Someone increases tax on tea imports? War!

  31. Re:Earth law vs universal law by Jessified · · Score: 2

    The US asserts legal jurisdiction not only in other countries but also on other planets. First contact will be to strong arm an extradition of some youthful alien (bringing new meaning to illegal alien).

  32. Re:There should be a distance expiry by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Unfortunately, the book and CDROM are no longer being published and are hard to find as a set.'"

    Thus illustrating where the copyright system is really broken.

    Copyright should be automatic for ten or fifteen years then after that you should have to pay for continued protection. If it's still making money then paying isn't a problem. If it isn't making money and/or being actively promoted it should drop into public domain.

    --
    No sig today...
  33. Re:Earth law vs universal law by drkim · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  34. "By a man called Carl Sagan" by giorgist · · Score: 2

    I would hope in slashdot, if not everywhere in the world we could address Carl Sagan as if we know him, not as "By a man called Carl Sagan". It makes me special to be able to put a face upon hearing this name.

  35. Re:Earth law vs universal law by tehcyder · · Score: 2

    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.

    If alien civilizations get hold of a copy of "Star Trek: First Contact" they'll probably vote to annihilate Earth as being artistically beyond the pale.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it