BBC to make video content freely available on Internet

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[Some excerpts from Wired article -- BSA]

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63857,00.html/wn_ascii

The British Broadcasting Corporation's Creative Archive, one of the most
ambitious free digital content projects to date, is set to launch this fall
with thousands of three-minute clips of nature programming. The effort could
goad other organizations to share their professionally produced content with
Web users. 

The project, announced last year, will make thousands of audio and video
clips available to the public for noncommercial viewing, sharing and
editing. It will debut with natural-history programming, including clips
that focus on plants, animals and birds. 

In contrast to record companies and Hollywood -- which are trying to lock
down their content with help from legislators -- in the BBC's case, access
to its programming archive is part of its charter. In the United Kingdom,
anyone who owns a television must pay a BBC-allocated fee, so the public
owns its programming. 

The BBC plans to license its materials using a system similar to Creative
Commons, an American organization that has developed a set of flexible
copyright licenses for creators of digital content. 


But observers expect commercial broadcasters to oppose the archive and the
expansion of liberal licensing efforts, arguing that they cannot compete
with free programming. 

"
 
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