[amsat-bb] Use of "veronica" beacons on wikipedia

[Grant Hopper]

I'm not a Intellectual Property attorney, but in my area(s) of practice:
business and corporate law, I have to understand what protections my
clients can gain and the limits of those protections.
The very basics of copyright include three requirements: that it be a work
of authorship, that it must be an original work, and that it must be fixed
in a tangible medium of expression.  If it lacks one of these three
elements, there is no right of protection.

>From my point of view, the beacon itself fails at least one, if not all
three tests.  Failing one is enough

And if we want to look to musical copyright cases, it becomes even harder
to fathom a copyright in a beacon since courts have held that rhythm and
harmony (what a beacon would be to my ear) are not “original,”and thus in
the public domain, while melody is often determined to be “original” and
protected by copyright. But of course this requires that there be an actual
composition and an author of that composition (and a performance by an
artist.)  I'd consider a beacon to fail all those tests as well.

One can also look to terrestrial radio stations for more of an idea of why
copyright isn't going to attach to a beacon transmission.  One has
educational use rights to radio broadcasts (the songs are a different
issue) but one has to attribute the performance to the performer.  If there
is no human performer....

I've long considered the informational publications produced by the USPO to
be really good sources of information for understanding the basics without
having to wade through volumes of statutes, but they don't necessary do a
good job of pulling it all together, or covering the nuanced bits that
naturally are a part of law.  It reminds me of a joke about lawyer bills:
How do you know when a lawyer's bill is going to be high? When you ask him
a question and he starts his answer with "It depends...."

I think that Brennan would agree with most if not all my analysis, and with
my ultimate conclusion as well.  Hopefully he will chime in officially and
put the question to rest by stating whether or not AMSAT can and wants to
claim copyright because it obtained a copyright from an author of the
beacon....

73,
Grant Hopper
KB7WSD

On Fri, Nov 29, 2019 at 10:22 PM Jean Marc Momple via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> Roy,
>
> This is an interesting subject which triggers some questions:
>
> Is telemetry or beacon of satellites subject to copyright?
>
> As far as I know none have a copyright warning, more many records and TLM
> are circulated openly on many sites or forums.
>
> Any lawyer in the community who may advise?
>
> Regards
>
>
>
> Jean Marc
>
> > On Nov 29, 2019, at 2:56 AM, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
> >
> > I’m in favor. I cannot think of a reason why it shouldn’t be on Wikipedia
> > and in wiki commons.
> >
> > I will ask the rest of the board today.
> >
> > -Michelle W5NYV
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 08:20 Roy Dean via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I recorded some very high quality beacons for AO-95, and was hoping to
> >> put them in wiki commons for inclusion on the AO-95 wikipedia page.
> >> However before doing so you are warned about copyrighted material and
> >> I realize that uploading that recording is likely no different than
> >> uploading anybody else's musical or spoken word work.
> >>
> >> I also took a screen grab of the waterfall showing the characteristic
> >> "fox tail", which I believe is free and clear - and I checked the
> >> AMSAT website regarding copyrighted material and it only mentions
> >> audio used on the AMSAT website (I think).
> >>
> >> Anyhoo, can I get written permission to post beacon recordings to wiki
> >> commons (wikipedia)?   Do I need to go through the website form (it
> >> doesn't really to "work" for recorded audio, only images) If not, no
> >> biggie.
> >>
> >> Happy Thanksgiving, all!
> >>
> >> --Roy
> >> K3RLD
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> >> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
> Opinions
> >> expressed
> >> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> >> AMSAT-NA.
> >> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
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> >>
> > --
> > -Michelle W5NYV
> >
> > "Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis."
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
> Opinions expressed
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> AMSAT-NA.
> > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
> program!
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>
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>