I did a search and as far as I can tell, know one has written a diary about this. If they have, I'll promptly delete.
The Washington Post reports that in a show of support for user-generated content and people-powered politics, presidential contender, Barack Obama has requested the DNC put Democratic debate footage into the public domain.
Details below the fold.
According to the Post:
In a letter sent to DNC chairman Howard Dean earlier today, Obama suggests debate video should be placed in the public domain, or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license. Such licenses allow authors, musicians, producers, scientists, etc. to pick and choose the copyright freedoms to apply to their work.
I'm glad to see one of our presidential contenders taking leadership on this issue of making it easier for citizens to participate in national political discourse. Obama wasn't the only one requesting the DNC drop restrictions on debate footage:
The senator references a letter sent to Dean and the DNC by "a bipartisan coalition of academics, bloggers and Internet activists." That letter was signed by, among others, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Markos Moulitsas, founder of liberal blog Daily Kos; Lowell Feld, who ran online campaign activities for Sen. Jim Webb's successful 2006 Senate campaign; and John Amato, the founder of Web site Crooks and Liars. It calls for "the DNC to ensure that all video footage from Democratic debates is able to be shared, re-used, and freely blogged about without the uploader of the video being deemed a lawbreaker."
A similar letter was sent to the RNC, but we'll see how far that goes. I don't see why Dean would have a problem with this. Hopefully the other Democratic contenders will follow suit and ask the DNC to make this content available to all citizens.
Here's Obama's letter:
Chairman Howard Dean
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 863-8000
Dear Chairman Dean:
I am writing in strong support of a letter from a bipartisan coalition of academics, bloggers and Internet activists recently addressed to you and the Democratic National Committee. The letter asks that the video from any Democratic Presidential debate be available freely after the debate, by either placing the video in the public domain, or licensing it under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.
As you know, the Internet has enabled an extraordinary range of citizens to participate in the political dialogue around this election. Much of that participation will take the form of citizen generated content. We, as a Party, should do everything that we can to encourage this participation. Not only will it keep us focused on the issues that matter most to America, it will also encourage participation by a wide range of our youth who have traditionally simply tuned out from politics.
The letter does not propose some radical change in copyright law, or an unjustified expansion in "fair use." Instead, it simply asks that any purported copyright owner of video from the debates waive that copyright.
I am a strong believer in the importance of copyright, especially in a digital age. But there is no reason that this particular class of content needs the protection. We have incentive enough to debate. The networks have incentive enough to broadcast those debates. Rather than restricting the product of those debates, we should instead make sure that our democracy and citizens have the chance to benefit from them in all the ways that technology makes possible.
Your presidential campaign used the Internet to break new ground in citizen political participation. I would urge you to take the lead again by continuing to support this important medium of political speech. And I offer whatever help I can to secure the support of others as well.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
In light of his extraordinary leadership on this issue, we should show Barack our support and ask Dean to side with the netroots on this one.
UPDATE: John Edwards has requested the DNC drop the restriction as well.
UPDATE 2: HOLY MOLY! I've never made the recommended list! Thanks guys, I'm so EXCITED!
UPDATE 3: Okay, so my time on the recommended list was short-lived, but I still think it's cool! :-)