The BBC Creative Archive is nearly here
Auntie Beeb has launched the Creative Archive Licence to cover the Creative Archive when it happens.
They’re doing it! Yay!
No DRM. The Creative Archive licence is permissive; it allows remixes, sharing, and so on. It’s very Creative-Commons-ish, with a couple of exceptions: there’s a “no endorsement and no derogatory use” clause, and a “UK only” bit. I can see the point on the no endorsement part; no derogatory use is also fine with me, assuming that “things the Beeb don’t agree with” doesn’t count as “derogatory“, but they’ve said “treat others and their work in the way that you’d expect them to treat you and your work…with respect!“, so it doesn’t look like it.
The UK-only thing…well, tough shit on the rest of the world, really. When the Yanks who will inevitably complain about this start getting my town into Google Maps, I’ll start giving a toss. The BBC is ours. It’s one of the greatest things there is about this little island I live on (the NHS is another), and we pay for it. So if it’s limited to us…unlucky the world, I say. Ha! I love the Beeb. Love it.
They have a project timetable which illustrates what will happen and when. During the pilot, they intend to release 100 hours of television and music. Channel 4 and the BFI are also involved.
It’s a bit worrying that it says this site will keep you informed of where we have got to and how we are addressing the complexities of clearing copyright, digitising and making available some of the great factual material stored in the BBC’s archive , mind. What about all the non-factual material? I hope it doesn’t just become a way to download worthy documentaries for free but none of the good stuff.
So, gang, when it comes out, grab that content and (this is the important bit) do something cool with it. So the BBC Board of Governors see that people aren’t just looking to leech free stuff, but instead want it because it makes their lives better. I’d like to incorporate some of the music into LugRadio but I think that our CC licence won’t permit it, since we have a No Derivative Works clause. Maybe we should look at changing that? LugRadio listeners can vote on whether we should change or not although we don’t promise to actually do it.
Update: it occurred to me on the train that Top Gear is a “factual programme“. Wicked.
The UK-only thing…well, tough shit on the rest of the world, really. When the Yanks who will inevitably complain about this start getting my town into Google Maps, I’ll start giving a toss. The BBC is ours. It’s one of the greatest things there is about this little island I live on (the NHS is another), and we pay for it. So if it’s limited to us…unlucky the world, I say. Ha! I love the Beeb. Love it.
Laughing out loud :D Couldn’t agree more.
-16801 seconds later
What does ‘UK only’ mean? If you use something from the creative archive in a LUGRadio episode, does that mean you can’t distribute that episode outside of the UK??
-13021 seconds later
Matt: it’s not very clear. It might mean that, which would (obviously) preclude us using it…
-7201 seconds later
my fellow moblogger Alfie says,
“6.4 [The BBC] reserves the right to change the terms of this Licence at any time. Any changes that [the BBC] considers at its discretion significantly alter the terms of the Licence, shall be notified to You.”
So basically the BBC can change the license type for any piece of content at any time? That’s a little dangerous no?
http://www.al4ie.com/?p=158
-6361 seconds later
I paid my license fee but now I live overseas. Does this mean that I can download material produced in the years I had a TV license? Probably not. Ho hum.
The UK only this is a shame, because I was really looking forward to legitimately watching Top Gear rather than having to dabble in the darknet.
18 hours later
Andy: yeah. I can see how that does seem a little unfair. On the other hand, I suppose that there’s a reasonable argument that when you choose to move away you sacrifice some benefits (in favour of getting some new ones, presumably, since you elected to move), and this would be one of them.
21 hours later
As a british citizen abroad, and having paid my TV license back in the days when I was over there, I’d love to be able to get access to some decent TV legally, for a change.
Hell, I wouldn’t even mind paying a tenner a month for access.
As it is, I’ll probably have to resort to semi-legal means like bouncing off a UK based proxy or somesuch.
4 days later
Bad timing :)
5 days later
Phil: yeah, yeah, yeah :)
I ought to say at this point: this is why a state broadcasting arm is a good idea, and the whole Hutton Report incident should brush away any accusations of pro-government bias on the part of Auntie Beeb. Whether it brushes away accusations of pro-_Tory_ bias is another question…
5 days later