FAQ
Can I post your content to our social media pages?
In general, no. Our media is not currently licensed for free distribution. You are always welcome to share our posts using legal means, like retweets, or share to stories on IG, but using a 3rd party downloader and then reposting to your own account, even with proper credit, is not permitted and will be reported.
Can I use them in my classes?
Please get in touch and we can figure something out.
Why can’t I post your videos to my channel?
We have spent years developing these and prefer to be the sole distributor at this point in time. Also, it runs agains the community guidelines for sites like Instagram:
Your account should represent you and your contributions to science outreach. There are plenty of tools you can use to make your own videos. Also, since our topics are often scientific and we use data and tools with certain attribution requirements, we need to respect the original work. Often, less serious sites have posted our material without the necessary credits and acknowledgements. This then reflects poorly on all involved.
But I thought it’s ok to post copyrighted material if I give credit?
Nope. That is a common misconception about copyright law. Some other copyright myths can be found here: Copyright Myths
Isn’t this a little harsh? I just want to share cool stuff and teach the world about astronomy and science.
Then please use legal means to share our content. We have spent years developing the tools to produce our videos and it really hurts when they are taken and used by others to try to sell crap (which is what most of the astro-related account in IG are - portals for drop-shipping outfits… they don’t actually want to inform about science, they just want you to buy a moon lamp or something.) Or better yet, make your own things! That’s where the joy is.
Also, since our visualizations often require more context and explanations that can be fit into 30 seconds, we like to be able to respond and answer questions. We find that when they end up on random channels around the internet, there is no one behind the scenes there to answer questions and clarify.
Lastly, the vast majority of short videos found on many social media sites are garbage. A few a good works of science visualization, but many are not. We prefer to be distanced from these pages. How can you tell the good from the bad? Start by reading this: Introduction to Scientific Visualization