Another Video NASA Will Not Link To – Because It Does Not Know How

Keith’s note: This video, “The Sagan Series (Part 2): Life Looks for Life“ is the second video by Reid Gower. You may recall that an earlier video of his (the precursor to this one) went uber viral a month or so ago with over 900,000 views on YouTube Alas, NASA was unable to find a way to link to that video then and I doubt that they will find a way to link to this one now. I would very much like to be proven wrong – but I am not holding my breath.
Poignant Video: NASA – The Frontier Is Everywhere (Update), earlier post
Keith’s update: To be fair, NASA Is not ignoring videos like this. In fact with Mr. Gower’s previous video they did try and find a way to link to it or acknowledge it. This is where NASA’s notoriously inconsistent official party poopers, the lawyers, come in. The issue has to do with the sources of imagery and sounds that Mr. Gower has used. This video is a mash-up – a compilation of sampled images, music, and vocals assembled from a variety of sources. Although Mr. Gower has been diligent in listing his sources, NASA’s issue is whether he actually has their formal permission to use these materials. The Fair Use Doctrine does enter into this – somewhat – except some works are sampled in great part – like Carl Sagan’s voice and the background music. NASA has gotten clearance from the organizations that guard recording artist issues to allow things such wake up songs and other copyright items to be used since NASA is not out to make a profit and uses these works for education purposes.
Life is a montage of other people’s stuff – but these are the rules that this one government agency tells itself that it must follow in this fashion. But as culture adapts, NASA needs to adapt too. This is not the first video to appear that NASA should pay attention to and it will not be the last. Instead of just staying silent NASA needs to explain why it cannot link to such things. All that continued silence does is to support the premise made by many (like me) that NASA doesn’t “get it”. NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Public Outreach Alan Ladwig has stopped by here to make comments on this topic. Perhaps NASA Watch readers could offer him some solutions to this problem – and some encouragement. He’s trying.