This is fantastic news, related by Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig:
Due to the historical nature of presidential debates and the significance of these forums to the American public, CNN believes strongly that the debates should be accessible to the public. The candidates need to be held accountable for what they say throughout the election process. The presidential debates are an integral part of our system of government, in which the American people have the opportunity to make informed choices about who will serve them. Therefore, CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate. We believe this is good for the country and good for the electoral process.
First, you may be a bit surprised to even learn that, yes, the television networks hosting the debates have always held the copyright to the appearance of the candidates. If you wanted to use the debate audio and video, you would have to assert “fair use” and the associated provisions (comment, criticism, parody, and proportionality in relation to the whole work). C-SPAN was the only one who had said they would free up the coverage. But the announcement by CNN is the first one by a major media company.
If you think about it, the established practice is quite ludicrous. In an era before the Internet, or even broadband Internet, there was no impetus to press for change. What could one do with the video anyway, other than edit it around on your VHS cassette?
But in an era of YouTube and citizens generated content, it made the case obvious. Lessig made a plea to both the RNC and DNC in April 2006 to demand all the networks free up the content with CC licenses.
I hope all the U.S. networks will agree to the same type of freeing of debate footage.
This could give a real boost to Wikipedia’s political coverage, and add some pressure for developing integrated video capability. We could have short clips in candidate’s articles where they give their policy statements, etc., and on Wikinews, an article on each debate that has the full video, plus summarizes the high points of the punditry response; assuming this policy remains in effect, this could make Wikinews a go-to source for people other than Wikimedians by the next election cycle.
It’ll boost us if it’s under an actually free license. Have they stated the terms? Is -nc or -nd in the terms?
Presidential debates in the US is still not free.
For starters, Americans are brainwashed to believe that only a Democrat or a Republican can ever be President.
As a result, even the primaries which is supposed to be a party affair is being funded with government money and conducted on government property. No other democracies in the world would allow a party’s primary to be funded with government money. By financing the primaries of the political parties of Democrat and Repulican primaries with public money, the government of the US is unofficially endorsing a 2 party system.
Secondly, there is no need to emphasize the need for the average American to watch these Presidential debates. Americans should instead be proactive and run for the President themselves. yes, I am asking you, if you are an American to prove that your country is indeed a democracy by running for the election of the President of the United States. Why? Too hard? Realize now that you may not be as democratic as you once thought you were? Run for President. Submit your name. And let’s see how far you can actually get.
What are the dates for cnn and fox’s debates
Sorry I’m digressing – but Flickr is blocked in China. This reminded me of the first time Wikipedia was blocked, which was quite close to the June Fourth as well. Hope its access will be allowed soon…
I echo David Gerard; it’s hard to believe they’ll release it without some sort of license, CC or otherwise. Have they specified that?
Oh, and Wikipedia is unblocked today.
It’s a great step forward for media coverage of national interests. All debates in public forums should be made available to any American who seeks it. CNN still gets the ad revenue from the initial broadcast and some added publicity and PR on the backend.