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juanm

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 1, 2006
1,626
3,053
Fury 161
Hi

I've been commissioned to create a short film for a company. The problem is, it's about travelling, and it requires a couple shots of the earth like seen on Google Earth. Nothing too detailed (uk-wide zoom at the most)

Does anybody around here know if NASA's Blue Marble imagery really is free for commercial use? This website seems to indicate I'm good to go (I'd just have to acknowledge the use of their images in the credits), but I'm looking for more opinions/suggestions.

I'm talking specifically about pictures like this one:
earth_day.jpg



I'm comfortable using 3Ds Max, so I'm not too keen on buying Google Earth Pro if I can get a better-looking result and more control with my own software (I want to do some postproduction in After Effects and could really use channels and IDs).

Thanks
 
I've used Blue Marble many a time for commercial use, specifically for broadcast and vod. There's no issue with using is at long as the source can be credited somehow, but if it's a very small portion of the map which it sound like then there's not going to have the need to credit.. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/useterms.php

Most of the time you're not going to be using the exact texture, most people end up editing, colour correcting, putting into 3d which so it doesn't come under the same militant terms of use such as Google, Microsoft or Geoeye mapping.

With the "pro" mapping such as Google the licensing is limiting and expensive, and for the 250M+ resolution they are using the same 2002 Blue Marble as from NASA. I would only ever suggest buying Google mapping or Geoeye if you need better than 100M resolution, even then it's expensive and usage is/can be problematic.

From experience you're not going to have issue using it for commercial use, I've used it many times during the last 6 years without any issues for dozens of broadcasters and digital media companies.
 
NASA media are paid for by the tax payer (Chinese or American), so, if they aren't classified, they are in the public domain.
 
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