It was because of you, Redditors, that my wife and I were able to expand our pop culture poster business. We thank you so very much

I deleted my comment seconds before your post because I hate being a wet blanket. However, I have dealt with NASA/ESA images and their licenses in the past on a fairly frequent basis.

Personality rights apply to astronauts as they would apply to any celebrity or person. NASA astronauts have litigated due to personality rights before.

As I said above, I appreciate the creativity. And certainly the majority people at NASA may appreciate it. But all it takes is one angry person to litigate you into bankruptcy. Their claims may be baseless, silly or unreasonable. But why risk it?

Do you adhere to the license terms of the photos you use? Creative Commons isn't a synonym for "take it and don't look back." You must properly attribute the authors in a manner set forth by the license. NASA does have copyright claims to their work. Their work is licensed under CC. ESA used to have a less permissive license but I think generally adheres to CC. Hubble is special as well. It gets more complicated from there. Have you read the CC in its entirety? It's one of the easier ones. Have you read up on personality rights in your state? It's much, much more opaque and isn't accomplished in a day.

Before you say no one cares, they do. Most people don't care, but the people that do, really care. And they will let you know, in writing, exactly how they feel. If they choose to litigate, you would be in a world of pain.

Are you a LLC? Sole propietorship? What kind of liability shield do you have? If you don't have any shield then all your assets can be up to grabs for the first person that find you profited off their work. These are all really important questions. I don't want to sound dismissive of your ideas or works, which I personally find neat. But the law is the law. It's opaque, confusing and has very tangible consequences.

/r/pics Thread Parent Link - i.imgur.com