August 2, 2024 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The answer about ULA’s crackdown is obvious. They want a piece of the action. They are upset that people are making money off photos of their launches and want royalties. To them, it seems like found money. ff you think that is incredibly petty, about 30 years ago several railroads went after model railroad manufacturers for using their logos and paint schemes on model railroad equipment and wanted a royalty on every piece sold as well as well an annual licensing fee. It was only halted by hordes of modelers writing to the executive suites in protest.
Col:
Agree with your assessment, but not so sure ULA is entirely in the wrong. They make cool stuff that people like to watch in action. Maybe the number of photo requests had become beyond their ability to manage. Free enterprise doesn’t always work to your advantage. Although in this case, it does set a precedent for slicing access to launches by company.
I have an interest in the scale railroad scene, and I felt the same way about that action. Brand protection isn’t pretty at ground level, but some brands are respected, in part, because they protect the brand.
Blair – For over 60 years, therailroads had not protested about the models. Indeed in earlier years they had cooperated with the manufacturers enjoying the publicity Lionel’s version of the Union Pacific M-10000,- a very early streamliner known as the “Tin Worm” to UP’s staff – of the 1930’s is a a famous and classic example. https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Union_Pacific_M-10000_Tin_Worm_(Lionel_Trains). And there is the idea that UP was not in the market of selling models and the model makers weren’t selling transportation so the case was moot. Plus there was the precedent of the airline industry and manufacturers not trying to cash in on models. Nobody was trying to collect royalties on a model Pacific Southwest Boeing 737..