RIP Neil Armstrong

Actually, of course, all these flights were orbital. It's just that with the first two, the orbit intersected the surface of the Earth.

or having sex with each other.

By that standard, I can jump into orbit (though not into space).

That's correct, you can - and do.

I've no problem with that if you are working to Humpty Dumpty rules :) But IIRC in general English usage "to orbit" means to "to go round" and "orbit" (in the astron sense) means the *repeated* elliptical course of a satellite etc or (more recently) one complete circuit.

I would not call an experienced combat pilot a geek.

They might have been NASA cameras but the crew had the rights to the pictures. They had no training on what to do with such pictures and just let people use them.

Well if you get desperate then get a flight to Leeds/Bradford or Doncaster Airport and stop at mine for the night. I cannot guarantee to stay out of the pub after the lecture.

The flight computer was (IIRC) on all the time. There were five - four identical ones and a fifth, to the same spec, from a different supplier. Three of them ran at once and checked each other, with a faulty one replaceable (probably manually) by one of the others.

They had a problem in the final stages of countdown once and had to abort the launch. Turned out to be a race condition introduced by a change about a year earlier. 24 hour brainstorming session worked out it would only happen 1 in 67 times (I think). Fine once it had synced.

So they turned the whole lot off and on again. Job done.

Now you're being pedantic

Assuming they were told "Go to the moon and take some pictures" as part of the mission briefing, then the copyright belongs to whoever or whichever organisation asked them to take pictures. They don't need to be told what pictures to take, just take them during the mission.

If I am wandering round taking pictures when I'm at work, but haven't been asked to, then the copyright in those pictures is mine. If I take pictures while I am at work, at the request of the Company that I work for, they own the copyright.

Example:- If I take a picture of the waterfront in Donegal while I'm walking from the hotel to the coach because I like the look of it, that's my copyright. If I take the same picture at the boss's request, it's his copyright.

In the case of the Apollo pictures, then NASA might have a case for charging the astronauts freight charges for moving the weight of the film, if they used their own film on their own time.

(Simplified, but I believe basically right.)

Possibly.

But if I am employed and working in England, then English law applies. If I were employed and working in the USA, then USA law applies (and, maybe, state law). Which law applies up there?

NASA`say:- "No copyright is asserted for NASA photographs. If a recognizable person appears in a photo, use for commercial purposes may infringe a right of privacy or publicity. Photos may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA or by any NASA employee of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any other manner that might mislead. Accordingly, it is requested that if a NASA photograph is used in advertising and other commercial promotion, layout and copy be submitted to NASA prior to release." Quote from:-

I'd guess, and IANAL, that if you work for a USA based organisation, then USA law would generally apply to you unless overridden by local law. So, in this case, all pictures taken by the Apollo astronauts would appear to be copyright free fo non-commercial use.

As copyright law is pretty much the same in the UK and USA, I'd say any difference would be of academic interest only. But I could be wrong...

You could argue the words "geostationary orbit" are mutually exclusive.

Good one. And why the term 'Clarke orbit' is better.

On Tue, 28 Aug 2012, "Bob Eager" writ:

I was only talking about the LEM landing computer as an example. The LEM actually had 2 computers of its own which were also duplicated in the CM but its own were not powered up during flight.

Would you cite the source of this information?

So that's where Microsoft got the idea.

IANAL but, AFAIK, copyright law does differ between countries. One area is USA's "fair use", which does not have a direct equivalent in UK law.

IIRC in general if someone is instructed to take photos then the copyright would be shared between the taker and the organisation or person that instructed them.

I was really responding to the thread in general.

It was in an issue of the RISKS journal from the ACM, many many years ago. Probably in comp.risks too. I didn't (and don't) have time right now to chase up the precise issue.