Readers
are likely to have come across Chris
Hadfield's rendition of David Bowie's classic song "Space Oddity".
Commander Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, performs the song whilst playing the
guitar from the comfort of the International Space Station.
The
Economist recently published an interesting article on copyright in space,
asking which jurisdiction Commander Hadfield was in when he recorded the video,
broadcast it live and subsequently uploaded it to YouTube? In practice
Commander Hadfield had permission to perform and distribute the song, however
for those who are interested, The Economist explains that the law which governs
the International Space Station depends on which part of the station an
astronaut is in. Commander Hadfield apparently made the recording in the
Destiny module (owned by NASA), the Cupola (now also owned by NASA, but
previously owned by the ESA) and the exciting sounding Japanese Experiment
Module (developed by JAXA), meaning that US and Japanese laws could have applied.
With technology
making both space travel and content broadcast more commonplace, is how the law
applies in space something we need to give more thought to? Answers on the back
of a postcard please!
