[OSM-talk] Explaining to NASA why the ASTER data should be freely licensed

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 3:01 PM, Jeffrey Ollie<jeff at ocjtech.us> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Ian Dees<ian.dees at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> NASA = a US federal government organization. All data originated by US
>> federal organizations (and especially when funded by tax payer dollars) is
>> in the public domain. I would imagine that the licensing terms they give are
>> superseded by these rules.
>
> ASTER is a joint mission between NASA a few Japanese organizations.
> As such, I don't think that public domain status can be automatically
> assumed of the ASTER data.
>
> http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/about.asp

You are correct. It's a NASA/METI project and as such isn't in the
public domain. The exact license terms are an arrangement between NASA
and METI.