Satellite Pics Going Dark?

KingFishKingFish
edited September 2004 in Science & Tech
You might be able to see the hurricanes heading for Florida. Maybe. But just about all other commercial satellite imagery could be put off-limits, if a new Senate bill goes through as planned.
The measure, "Nondisclosure of Certain Products of Commercial Satellite Operations," would exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) unclassified, commercial satellite pictures bought up by the government, as well as "any... other product that is derived from such data." "Almost every clause of the proposed exemption embodies patent hostility to the conventions of open government and public access to government information," Secrecy News fumes. For example, "maps, reports, and any other unclassified government analyses or communications that are in some way 'derived from' a commercial satellite image would all of a sudden become inaccessible." News reports would get a whole lot thinner, too. As Barbara Cochran, head of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, notes, the press relies on satellite pictures constantly, to track everything from weather to war to population shifts. "Recent uses include coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts; nuclear and other WMD sites in Iran, Pakistan, India, Libya, North Korea, China, and other countries; flooding in Bangladesh and Eastern India; deforestation in Brazil; wildfires and tornadoes in the United States; and refugee crises in the Sudan [and] Rwanda," she writes. If this regulation passes, much of that imagery – not classified in any way, and collected by a private company, not a government agency -- would vanish from public view.
Source: Defense Tech

Comments

  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    That's pretty messed up. Using satellite data was part of my 10th grade curriculum, what's the big idea?
    I guess anti terrorism but we're really going off the deep end.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    ****. That'll put me out of a job.

    Sure, we don't need to see images of sensitive areas, like Iraq during the war. But this broad language would cover images of the United States that are currently available from the USGS and state sources. Of course, commercial satellite companies would love this, because we'd be more likely to buy new images from them if the older free images are removed. :banghead:
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    I feel like I'm taking CRAZY pills! :banghead:
  • madmatmadmat
    edited September 2004
    You all have the current establishment to thank for this turn of events gentlemen and if this bill passes the house, senate and is signed into law then I would suggest that you ALL start thinking about looking into 3rd party politics because both the dems and reps will have royally screwed the proverbial pooch.
    If this is something being foisted upon us by the republican party I'm hoping that the democrats will kill it before it can go for signing and if it's something the democrats dreamed up I hope it gets veto'ed but if they don't then they're all just as guilty of idiocy as whoever proposed such a short sided piece of legislation.
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