Starship Asterisk*

Hi there,

Just joined, and wanted to ask if it's allowed (from a legal POV) to make my own, publicly-available APOD mirror?

What advantage would there be to hosting your own mirror? Will you be translating APOD into a language that is currently underserved?

No. It'd be in English, too. Just wondering if it's allowed, and if so, if there are any rules (apart from the obvious such as copyright notices, etc.)

Okay, I'm not understanding why you think APOD needs a mirror in English, but eh! I don't need to. Please email nemiroff@mtu.edu with your proposal; thanks!

Well, one reason would be to have a site that doesn't look like it was "designed" in 1995

But again, my question is not "Shall I make an APOD mirror?", my question is, "_CAN_ I legally make an APOD mirror, assuming that full copyright notices, description text and other links (archives, etc., as per the existing APOD sites) are posted"

Technically, no. When someone submits an image to APOD they give permission for APOD and any of its official mirrors or social sites to also use the image. If you aren't an official mirror or social site operator you wouldn't have permission for anything not public domain. There are rogue sites out there as well as rogue apps which rip directly from APOD which are unofficial and not legal. There isn't a pack of lawyers supporting APOD so while it's frowned upon it does happen.

@geckzilla: OK, thank you for that. I certainly don't want to get into legal trouble! Mods can close this thread if they want to.

You could still make your proposal to RJN and ask to be listed as another official English mirror. There are definitely some fun things that can be done with APOD once all of the data is properly stored in a database that can't be done in its purely html native state. If your only reason is to give it a better look, though, you'd be better off with a browser plugin that selectively alters the CSS for APOD.