[Spice_announce] Commercial Use of SPICE

[Charles H. Acton]

NASA and JPL have fully, formally approved the commercial use of 
SPICE software and data files, without need for license or fees.

SPICE software and data have been designated "Technology and Software 
Publicly Available (TSPA)" for export control purposes. As a result, 
except as noted in the RULES section of the NAIF webpage, the export 
of SPICE products -- data, software and related documentation -- is 
not restricted and is independent of and not limited by export 
agreements for specific flight projects.

The continued support of SPICE by NASA and JPL appears very logical 
and highly supported by dozens of projects and programs, and by 
hundreds of users worldwide. All current indications from NASA and 
JPL are that SPICE support will indeed be ongoing. However no promise 
can be made to this effect.

As for all uses and users, the SPICE software is COPYRIGHT California 
Institute of Technology, and, the software, data and related 
documentation are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind.

The NAIF team has limited resources for user consultation. These are 
to be principally focused on national space agency funded customers.

Please see the RULES and the GETTING HELP sections of the NAIF 
webpages for further details: 
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/rules.html and 
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/gettinghelp.html.

Questions should be addressed to NAIF manager Charles Acton: 
charles.acton at jpl.nasa.gov.