In 1979 Robert A. Heinlein testified before a joint session of the House Committee on Aging and the House Committee on Science and Technology, on the subject of what technological “spinoff” the space program had produced, to that date, that might be of benefit to aging or disabled persons. He came up with many examples. The transcript was published under the title “Spinoff” in his 1980 book Expanded Universe.
Does anyone know where I can find the text of “Spinoff” online? I want to link it in this thread. I can’t seem to find it via Google or Yahoo. (The word “copyright” does not exist.)
I’m not Brain Glutton or empowered to speak for him, but I suspect he means, “Don’t be put off by notices of copyright; all I want to do is link people to the online copy, not reprint it.”
In any case, while it was copyright as a part of Expanded Universe, can one copyright their own testimony to a Congressional committee hearing? I would think that at that point it accrues to the public domain, with Congress having control over any misuse of it.
Do committee hearings go into the Congressional Record? If so, the question then would be if it can be found online then, as I don’t think the Congressional Record goes back much past a decade online.
Aye. I mean, we post links to current magazine articles and such all the time. We’re even allowed to post excerpts from them so long as the posted text is significantly less than half of the whole article. As I understand it. (Let’s not get into the “fair use” doctrine and all that.)
Interesting question. But what I find strange is that the article hasn’t been posted online as far as I can find, even though it is very influential among spaceflight fans, SF fans, and Heinlein fans. (Hard to imagine how reproduction of it could be “misused,” except by denying revenue to the Heinlein estate, which is probably much more interested in getting RAH’s ideas out there as widely as possible.)
If I recall correctly, Heinlein did not want Expanded Universe to be published outside the U.S. and Canada. Perhaps that’s related to why it’s not online. (Or maybe it is available now, five years on. )
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