Astronaut's Space Cover of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' is in Jeopardy ::David Bowie News ::antiMusic.com

Astronaut's Space Cover of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' is in Jeopardy

05/14/2014
. (Radio.com) Remember when astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded his own poignant version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," one-upping the originator by actually performing it in space? Now, denizens of the Internet are fighting to keep the video online.

The Daily Dot reports that Hadfield's video, posted a year ago Monday (May 12) to YouTube, will be taken after Tuesday because the video was apparently only licensed for one year.

Hadfield explained to his followers on Twitter and Facebook the situation, noting that they "had permission for a year." But while the astronaut seems a bit more resigned to the video's fate, many fans of the clip are tweeting at and posting on Bowie's Facebook wall, hoping he'll allow the video to remain online.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy. As The Economist pointed out last year, copyright is a fickle fellow in space. Because Hadfield was close enough to earth when he recorded the song, he's subject to terrestrial copyright laws, but since copyright varies by country, it's a matter of which country he was technically in when he recorded - and as evidenced by the video, he jumped around a bit, both in time and in location. Plus, even the latter poses an issue, as different parts of the International Space Station, on which Hadfield recorded the song, are owned by different countries, meaning the laws of those countries apply as well. more on this story

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