Thursday, March 8, 2007

Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007. Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007. Includes reporting requirements for the DHS. [GT: Security and Privacy] 7:12:24 PM

C-SPAN Adopts Creative Commons-Style License. C-SPAN Adopts Creative Commons-Style License.   Trillian_1138 writes  "C-SPAN, a network in the US dedicated to airing governmental proceedings, has adopted a Creative Commons-style license for all its content. This follows the network claiming Speaker of the House Pelosi's use of C-Span videos on her site violated their copyright. Specifically, 'C-SPAN is introducing a liberalized copyright policy for current, future, and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency -- about half of all programming offered on the C-SPAN television networks -- which will allow non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution.' Here is the press release. The question remains whether videos of governmental proceedings should be public domain by default or whether the attribution requirement is reasonable in the face of easy video copying and distribution." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 6:59:33 PM

C-SPAN Unchains Congressional Hearing Videos. C-SPAN Unchains Congressional Hearing Videos. C-SPAN has announced that, effective immediately, its videos of Congressional hearings, White House briefings, and other federal events will be freely available for noncommercial copying, sharing and posting, so long as attribution is included (sounds like the Creative Commons by-nc license, but no confirmation on whether that's what they are using). According to the C-SPAN press release, the move recognizes that we're in "an age of explosive growth of video file sharers, bloggers and online citizen journalists." This is fantastic news! A considerable helping of the credit belongs to Carl Malamud, who responded to a copyright kerfuffle involving House Speaker Nanci Pelosi's use of C-SPAN hearing footage by writing an open letter to C-SPAN's CEO Brian Lamb challenging him to open up the archives to enable these kinds of public uses of C-SPAN content. Several meetings later, it appears C-SPAN decided to rise to the challenge. Kudos to Carl, and kudos to C-SPAN. This is an amazing bit of public service all around. (Full disclosure: EFF represented Carl in connection with this issue, but we hardly lifted a finger -- all credit goes to Carl.) [EFF: Deep Links] Editor: Hmm maybe I'll have to consider making some snippets available in the future. A lot of hearings are dry, but every once in a while you get a real gem. 5:56:27 PM

© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick. Last update: 3/18/07; 8:06:36 PM.