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msnbc.com
Should news orgs like NBC News and MSNBC.com own the copyright to presidential debates? |
In a few hours a flock of Democratic presidential candidates will take the stage in Orangeburg, S.C. for the first debate of the 2008 election season. As
I noted earlier, NBC affiliates will be televising the live debate, with a streaming webcast on MSNBC.com. Those organizations will, as far as I understand it, own the copyright to that footage.
However, in today's "remix culture" -- where people increasingly expect and want to be able to grab video clips for commentary, discussion, and even remixing and parody -- does it make sense for a key part of the small-"d"-democratic process to basically be locked down by copyright? Look at it this way: Government publications cannot be copyrighted. Therefore, why should video coverage of government-related events such as candidate debates be subject to copyright?
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Obviously, copyright law won't change quickly. However, it might be possible for the leadership of the nation's two major parties to pave the way to bring forthcoming debates more fully into remix culture.
Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig (a leading architect and advocate of Creative Commons licensing) is tackling this thorny issue. He's calling on the public to contact the leaders of the Republican and Democratic National Committees to "eliminate unnecessary regulation of political speech."
Specifically, Lessig's asking the RNC and DNC to promise to "require of any network broadcasting Presidential debates (at least) that they license the debates freely after they are initially broadcast -- either by putting the debates into the public domain, or by permitting anyone to use or remix the contents of those debates, for any reason whatsoever, so long as there is attribution back to any purported copyright holder (CC-BY)." (Here's the press release.)
It's a bold move -- but will it fly with the DNC, RNC, and major broadcast networks? What special concerns or issues might this pose for video news organizations?
What do you think of Lessig's proposal? Please comment below.
(Thanks to Hugh D'Andrade of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for the tip.)
