Re: Help about texture inclueded in stellarium

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>]

I'm going to deal with these one at a time, to avoid really long messages.

        * The Earth texture was created by NASA using data from the MODIS
                instrument aboard the Terra satellite.? Further information is 
available
                from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/

If it was really created by NASA -- which is part of the US government -- then 
it is in the public domain, like all creations of the US government.

If it was created (1) by a third party (like JPL) under contract with the 
government, or (2) was modified (to a degree significant for copyright) by a 
third party who is not part of the government, then it is under copyright and 
a license is needed from whoever has the copyright.

You can probably find out which it is.  :-)

Anyway, from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/masthead.html,
"Any and all materials published on the Earth Observatory are freely available 
for re-publication or re-use, except where copyright is indicated."

I suspect that "re-use" is intended to include modification (which is 
necessary for many scientific puposes) here.  Perhaps if the site managers 
for Earth Observatory they were asked to clarify that, they would.