Chris Hadfield has become a household name since his 5-month stint in the International Space Station. With a personality that warms even the coldest hearts, it’s been tough for people to not love this man.
That’s why on his last day up in the ISS in May 2013, he released his cover of David Bowie’s 1969 hit, “Space Oddity.” It was so well-loved – YouTubers everywhere were sharing it across all their social media outlets. With permission from Bowie’s publishing team, he was allowed to keep it online for one year.
A year later, he kept his promise and removed the video from YouTube… at only a mere 23,189,487 hits. Hadfield and his team worked diligently with their lawyers and Bowie’s to get it put back online. The copyright laws were quite complicated, as Hadfield noted in his blog today, “In the magazine The Economist, Glenn Fleishman wrote an excellent summary of some of the legal concerns. The Space Station was built by 15 countries, and depending on where I floated while singing and playing, whose copyright laws applied? Which Space Agency owned the recording? Whose jurisdiction was I in?”
Today, we’ve heard BIG news that Bowie’s team has signed a two-year agreement with the Canadian Space Agency to allow the video to circulate once again. If you missed it the first time, or just want to see it again, check it out:
If you’re looking for more details straight from the mouth of our favourite Canadian astronaut, check out his blog.
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