Some people : Surely this is blatant copyright

[Catanonia]

photos taken by the hubble telescope on eBay (end time 26-Mar-10 04:12:19 GMT)

I doubt it is a proper original DVD

[tooth_dr]

Have you done anything other that post about it on here? Report it to ebay.

[Catanonia]

Have you done anything other that post about it on here? Report it to ebay.

i did

[FraserClarke]

Surely this is blatant copyright

Not necessarily. All HST data is publicly available -- you can go and download anything you want for free. I'm not sure if the same is true with the 'produced' images, and I'm also pretty certain they'd take a dim view of people profiteering from it. But it may not actually be illegal...

[johninderby]

It's worth checking out The ESA website for Hubble DVDs, downloads etc.

http://www.spacetelescope.org/hubbleshop/webshop/webshop.php?show=sales&section=cdroms

John

[stev74]

Yeah I've seen a similar thing with people selling disks of Stellarium on ebay, which is also profiteering from someone else's hard work and is wrong.

Stellarium Professional Astronomy Software for your PC on eBay (end time 08-Apr-10 15:28:18 BST)

Again because the software is free to download it seems to be legal to sell it. Just for the record I have reported this to ebay before but nothing has happened.

For anyone who doesn't know, get it FREE here - Stellarium

They have a support this project banner at the bottom right of the page if you feel like donating cash. At least it'll go to the right people instead of the pirates on ebay!!

[yeti monster]

But do the producers of stellarium offer the programme on a disc? For example, I cannot download stellarium at work due to the Great Firewall. If I had a disc I could load it, as I did with Gimp.

Pirate or public servant?

[Talitha]

HubbleSite Copyright Notice

[Daggerstab]

Stellarium is free/open source software. This means that it can be sold legally, as long as the seller obeys the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Pirate or public servant?

Definitely not a "public servant" if the fact that the program can be downloaded for free is not mentioned. I have a few words appropriate for such vendors, but I guess they are covered by the forum's rules, so I have to settle for "pirate".

[Space Bat]

Could you not list the same thing?

But make it free - and simply in the information, provide details of where these images can be downloaded...

This way the listing will be seen alongside this (*&^%) listing which will obvioulsy not go down well

Chris

[oceanheadted]

Yeah I've seen a similar thing with people selling disks of Stellarium on ebay, which is also profiteering from someone else's hard work and is wrong.

Stellarium Professional Astronomy Software for your PC on eBay (end time 08-Apr-10 15:28:18 BST)

Again because the software is free to download it seems to be legal to sell it. Just for the record I have reported this to ebay before but nothing has happened.

For anyone who doesn't know, get it FREE here - Stellarium

They have a support this project banner at the bottom right of the page if you feel like donating cash. At least it'll go to the right people instead of the pirates on ebay!!

A lot of open source free software is distributed under a licence that says you are not allowed to charge third parties for it. So if you were selling it, it would be infringement of the licence. However I doubt the people that create Stellarium have the cash/time to chase these people through the courts.

[callump]

You are not allowed to charge a license fee for open source free software, but you are usually alllowed to charge a distribution fee - so if you are making a CD and offering support, then maybe it's reasonable, and may not be illegal.

/callump

[AstroTiger]

This is the problem with ebay, people would literally sell their grandmothers souls on ebay for a few quid.

I was curious some years ago and paid a few pounds for some instructions on how to bypass virgin tv so you can get it without paying.

The ideas were a little too technical for me and i never tried it, but that aside you get people selling all manner of information on ebay which can be just as easily found by googling.

People selling inside information on how to avoid getting caught by speed cameras.

An in this case that chap reselling Hubble images, which are freely available on the site.

i guess the difference here is, he is offering 1000 or so of them which might take some people a little while to download. So is he charging for the images themselves or the service who knows.

If its any concellation, it does not appear that too many people are interested in buying them.

[stev74]

But do the producers of stellarium offer the programme on a disc? For example, I cannot download stellarium at work due to the Great Firewall. If I had a disc I could load it, as I did with Gimp.

I would suggest you put stellarium on to disk yourself at home and take the CD with you when you go to work. In fact it was included on the Feb 2010 S@N magazine CD if you can't download it to disk yourself. S@N also include a link to the stellarium website which the ebay sellers do not.

I do get what your saying, if you still want to get it from ebay that is up to you as your making an informed choice, you know you can get it free. The issue that I have is the ebay sellers don't mention anywhere in their advert that you can download stellarium for free. So the average member of the public may not know you can get it free, so to me they are still pirates!!

P.S. Yeti if you want it on disk and can't do it yourself or don't have Feb's S@N i'll gladly post you my copy for free rather than you paying for it on ebay. Just PM me your address.

Could you not list the same thing?

But make it free - and simply in the information, provide details of where these images can be downloaded...

This way the listing will be seen alongside this (*&^%) listing which will obvioulsy not go down well

Good idea Chris that is definitely worth looking at.