Sen. Mel Martinez, General Chairman
Hon. Mike Duncan, Chairman
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 863-8500
Chairmen Martinez and Duncan:
We are writing to request that the Republican National Committee help usher in the next stage of the Internet revolution that has made democracy more accessible to regular people and made politicians more accountable to their constituents.
In this letter, top technologists, grassroots organizations, bloggers, and others are asking the RNC to ensure that all video footage from Republican debates is able to be shared, re-used, and freely blogged about without the uploader of the video being deemed a lawbreaker.
In 1996, presidential candidates communicated on websites for the first time. In 2000, presidential candidates accepted online contributions for the first time. 2004 ushered in a new type of Internet-based people-powered activism.
In 2008, we need to ensure that the promise of online video is not inhibited. In the past, television stations that broadcast presidential debates have retained exclusive rights to debate footage after the event was over. By and large, such contract terms were not noticed by voters, activists, or news junkies - there was no widespread forum for regular people to share video content even if they wanted to.
But in the age of online video sharing, corporations retaining exclusive rights to debate footage is an obvious barrier to democratic participation. No concerned voter should ever be labeled a lawbreaker for wanting to share video of a presidential debate with others.
We, the undersigned, request that the Republican National Committee publicly urge state parties and other Republican debate sponsors to specify in debate contracts that video footage will be put into the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license - so that after the debate, the video will be free for anyone to access, edit, and share with others with proper attribution.
We ask you to follow the lead of C-SPAN, which this year announced they would allow expanded use of their video content by others - paving the way for a more informed electorate through online video sharing.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss details, we'd be happy to make time for that discussion.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Lessig - Professor, Stanford Law School & Founder, Center for Internet and Society
Craig Newmark - Founder of Craigslist
Jimmy Wales - Founder of Wikipedia
Brad Smith - Former FEC Chair, and current Chair of the Center for Competitive Politics
Michael Turk - Former eCampaign Director, Republican National Committee
Michelle Malkin - Conservative columnist and blogger, and founder of michellemalkin.com and hotair.com
Mike Krempasky - Co-founder of RedState.com
John Hawkins - Right Wing News
Robert Bluey - Bluey Media
David All - TechPresident and founder of The David All Group
Liz Mair - GOP Progress blog
Patrick Ruffini - 2005-2006 RNC eCampaign Director and blogger at PatrickRuffini.com
Matt Margolis - GOP Bloggers and founder of Blogs for Bush
Glenn Reynolds - Professor, University of Tennessee Law, and founder of Instapundit.com blog
Dr. William Greene - President, RightMarch.com
Shari Steele, Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fred von Lohmann - Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Intellectual Property issues)
Tim Wu - Professor, Columbia Law School & Founder of Columbia's Program on Law & Technology
Cory Doctorow - Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California (post)
Paul Rieckhoff - Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Wade Henderson - President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Kim Gandy - President, National Organization for Women
Andy Stern - International President, SEIU
Karen Ackerman - Political Director, AFL-CIO (post)
Micah Sifry - Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
Arianna Huffington - Huffington Post
David Moore - Executive Director, Participatory Politics Foundation and OpenCongress.org
Josh Silver - Executive Director, Free Press
Carol Jenkins - President, The Women's Media Center
Carl Malamud - Founder of Public.Resource.Org
Roger Hickey - Co-director, Campaign for America's Future
John Schwartz - Founder of Free Speech TV, and FreeSpeech.org
Paul Jay - CEO, Independent World Television and TheRealNews.com
Helen De Michiel -- Co-Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Nicholas Reville - Co-Founder, Participatory Culture Foundation
Lark Corbeil - Founder & Managing Editor, Public News Service
David Michaelis - Director of Current Affairs, Link TV
Linda Jue - Executive Director, New Voices in Independent Journalism
|
Chairman Howard Dean
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 863-8000
Chairman Dean:
We are writing to request that the Democratic National Committee help usher in the next stage of the Internet revolution that has made democracy more accessible to regular people and made politicians more accountable to their constituents.
In this letter, top technologists, progressive grassroots organizations, bloggers, and others are asking 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.
In 1996, presidential candidates communicated on websites for the first time. In 2000, presidential candidates accepted online contributions for the first time. In 2004, your campaign helped usher in a new type of Internet-based people-powered activism.
In 2008, we need to ensure that the promise of online video is not inhibited. In the past, television stations that broadcast presidential debates have retained exclusive rights to debate footage after the event was over. By and large, such contract terms were not noticed by voters, activists, or news junkies - there was no widespread forum for regular people to share video content even if they wanted to.
But in the age of online video sharing, corporations retaining exclusive rights to debate footage is an obvious barrier to democratic participation. No concerned voter should ever be labeled a lawbreaker for wanting to share video of a presidential debate with others.
The Democratic National Committee recently announced it would sanction six official presidential debates. We, the undersigned, request that no debate get the official sanction of the DNC unless contract terms specify that video footage will be put into the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license - so that after the debate, the video will be free for anyone to access, edit, and share with others with proper attribution.
We ask you to follow the lead of C-SPAN, which this year announced they would allow expanded use of their video content by others - paving the way for a more informed electorate through online video sharing.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss details, we'd be happy to make time for that discussion.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Lessig - Professor, Stanford Law School & Founder, Center for Internet and Society
Craig Newmark - Founder of Craigslist
Jimmy Wales - Founder of Wikipedia
Brad Smith - Former FEC Chair, and current Chair of the Center for Competitive Politics
Wade Henderson - President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Paul Rieckhoff - Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Kim Gandy - President, National Organization for Women
Andy Stern - International President, SEIU
Karen Ackerman - Political Director, AFL-CIO (post)
Eli Pariser - Executive Director, MoveOn.org Civic Action
James Rucker - Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org
Markos Moulitsas - Founder of DailyKos.com
Arianna Huffington - Founder of the Huffington Post
David Halperin - Director, Campus Progress & Senior Vice President, Center for American Progress
Alexandra Acker - Executive Director, Young Democrats of America
Roger Hickey - Co-director, Campaign for America's Future
Josh Silver - Executive Director, Free Press
Carol Jenkins - President, The Women's Media Center
Shari Steele, Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fred von Lohmann - Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Intellectual Property issues)
Tim Wu - Professor, Columbia Law School & Founder of Columbia's Program on Law & Technology
Cory Doctorow - Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California
Micah Sifry - Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
David Moore - Executive Director, Participatory Politics Foundation and OpenCongress.org
Spencer Overton - Professor, GW Law & Founder of Blackprof.com blog
Robert Greenwald - Director, BraveNewFilms
Dan Manatt - Founder of PoliticsTV.com
Duncan Black - Founder of Atrios
Jane Hamsher - Founder of FireDogLake.com
Christy Hardin Smith - Front-page blogger, FireDogLake.com
Matt Stoller - Front-page blogger, MyDD.com
Chris Bowers - Front-page blogger, MyDD.com
David Waldman - Front-page blogger, DailyKos.com
Christopher M. Rabb - Founder and Chief Evangelist, Afro-Netizen
John Amato - Founder of Crooksandliars.com
John Aravosis - Founder of AMERICAblog.com
Don Hazen - Executive Editor, Alternet.org
Lowell Feld - Founder of RaisingKaine.com & former Netroots Coordinator, Webb for Senate (Virginia blog)
Juan Melli - Founder of BlueJersey.com (New Jersey blog)
Mark Nickolas - Publisher, BluegrassReport.org (Kentucky blog)
David Kravitz - Co-founder, BlueMassGroup.com (Massachusetts blog) (post)
Matt Singer - Founder of LeftInTheWest.com & former blogger for Tester for Senate (Montana blog)
Hugh Jackson - Founder of LasVegasGleaner.com (Nevada blog)
Myrna Minx - Founder of RenoDiscontent.com (Nevada blog)
Adam Green - Civic Communications Director, MoveOn.org Civic Action
Jane Fleming Kleeb - Executive Director, Young Voter PAC
Mike Lux - American Family Voices
Nicholas Reville - Co-Founder, Participatory Culture Foundation
Carl Malamud - Founder of Public.Resource.Org
Roz Lemieux - Executive Director, New Organizing Institute
Michael Silberman - Co-Founder and Director, EchoDitto
John Schwartz - Founder of Free Speech TV and freespeech.org
Paul Jay - CEO, Independent World Television and TheRealNews.com
Julie Bergman Sender - Filmmaker, Balcony Films
Garlin Gilchrist II - Blogger, TheSuperSpade.com (post)
Helen De Michiel -- Co-Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Jay Harris - President & Publisher, Mother Jones
Bruce Dixon - Black Agenda Report
Jill Tubman - Publisher, JackAndJill.com politics blog
Frank Emspak - Executive Producer, Workers Independent News
Lark Corbeil - Founder & Managing Editor, Public News Service
Tracy Van Slyke - Publisher, In These Times
Joel Bleifuss - Editor, In These Times
Roberto Lovato - New America Media
David Michaelis - Director of Current Affairs, Link TV
Ty West - Senior Producer, NOW on PBS
Marc Favreau - Editorial Director, The New Press
Ina Howard - Communications Director, The New Press
Linda Jue - Executive Director, New Voices in Independent Journalism
Rinku Sen - Publisher, Colorlines magazine
Siva Vaidhyanathan - New York University, and blogger
Dan Gillmor, Director, Center for Citizen Media |
Comments (45)
power to the people
Free speech.
I support this petition as well.
Melvin R. Welch
3L
University of Minnesota Law School
i am a conservative and i support president bush and the war!
jim holland
Our democracy will be made just a little better if we're allowed to absorb and reuse what our candidates say in the debates. And it'll be just a little worse if we are not. That's why I enthusiastically support these petitions.
David Weinberger
Fellow, Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society
I support this petition.
Political debates are done for the people, let's let the people have them.
I support this petition.
Good luck!
This has my full support....
Three petitions I've seen in the passed days: get Joe Lieberman to swictch parties, Get the Army to revoke Jessica Lynch's Bronze Star..., and now this!?!
Of which the number of signatures collected remains unimportant. All the networks already have agreements to share. FoxNews pays licencing fees to al Jajeera already for borrowed footage. The upcoming debates will be available in the c-span archive, and everybody will have access. Not to mention the clips that'll make their way to YouTube, all under the "Fair Use" license.
Your're putting way too much effort into making a problem go away, when the problem simply doesn't exist.
I really like what you're doing! Clearly, YouTube is revolutionizing the way we interact with candidates, formulate opinions and spread information. All in front of a shockingly large and interested constituency. Your work is vastly important. Thanks!
-Viralroots
The length of the segments required to make a video commenting on a specific answer would almost assuredly be covered under fair use, so I don't see an issue here either.
Lessig's name and time would be better spent encouraging uncomfortable debate questions, particularly about negligently covered issues such as ImmigrationMatters. I don't think Lessig would find as many signatories for such a petition, particularly since some of the names on both petitions above would oppose asking questions about topics that would reveal their side to be extremely lacking.
I can't speak to the argument that networks already give up debate footage to the public domain, but people arguing that it is fair use are missing one crucial point. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean the behavior will go unimpeded. Sending a DMCA notice will most likely get any material, even material used under fair use, taken down for a time. Additionally, the threat of a lawsuit from a large corporation can be very intimidating even if they don’t have a case causing some individuals to relent. Just look at SLAPP suits or the RIAA litigation. Fair use is a legal defense, not a method to effectively protect your immediate right to free speech. It may be true that once the video is out there, it really can’t be completely taken down, but the point is to preemptively protect uninhibited political speech, not rely on the fact that partially inhibited speech will survive. I don’t see a letter being too much effort for this goal.
Sharing/freeing political speech would be a wonderful way to help Americans be more involved in the important politics of these times.
Nicely put, Mr. Freiman.
A free and open debate that explores the issues is vital for the continuation of our republic.
While I agree, I think, with the intent of these letters, I do have some concerns. Allowing unrestricted editing may well allow footage of the debates to be used to create wholly inaccurate presentations of the candidates positions.
Its bad enough that we are subjected to a barrage of media sound bytes, must we allow the selective editing of what should be complex communication? Just snip out a word here and there and instant message change.
I don't believe this "strengthens copyright", at all. What would strengthen copyright is to use and protect our free speech rights, including fair use. Asking for permission for something that should require no permission is not even helpful.
Fine. Now that that petition is out of the way, how about a petition demanding that those running debates feature tough, non-puffball, non-smear, specific questions about statements and actions?
For instance, I cover immigration matters quite closely, and "reporters" consistently allow politicians to lie about that topic rather than challenging their statements. And, during the 2004 debates there was just *one* question about immigration, which was answered with Bush's/Kerry's stock talking points.
The much bigger threat to our political system is that there are some topics where "reporters" and almost all politicians are aligned, no matter what the rest of the country thinks.
Nicely written, I am sharing your point of view on the subject.
The prodigious copyright lobbyist, Jack Valenti, has died:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1908451.htm
THE CONCEPT OF PLACING ON YOU-TUBE THE MEANINGFUL COMMENTS ON SIGNIFICANT TOPICS MADE BY CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT IS HIGHLY INFORMATIVE AND BENEFITIAL IN HELPING TO LEARN ABOUT CANDIDATES. THE USE OF TRADITIONAL TV AND NEWS MEDIA TO GAIN INFORMATION ABOUT CANDIDATES IS INADEQUATE.
to post the debates on YouTube is a fantastic idea. I don't have a TV and I missed watching the debates yesterday, so I thought actually I might check out YouTube, maybe I can find them there . . . so I am thrilled, please make this possible. It is so important, that everyone has access to these kind of informations.
An an excellent idea. I support it.
I agree with you totally.
this is why we must destroy the MSM now.
I twittered the Jeff Jarvis post on this topic. Put my name down as supporting this issue:
steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate
Peoria, IL web usability analyst
www.vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com
I totally support this issue. We need to have more PUBLIC in the PUBLIC DOMAIN - not just mega-corporations hogging the airwaves, and not allowing PUBLIC discourse on these all-important issues. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Unfortunately, I missed the debates on TV, and so far all I Have been able to hear are the sound bites, hence I would really like to be able to hear the entire debate in full.
Your're putting way too much effort into making a problem go away, when the problem simply doesn't exist
HDNet Dec 1 DNC debate (Sat 7:30pm ET)
- all eight -
gravel kucinich paul nader
This site is interesting and very informative, nicely interface. Enjoyed browsing through the site.
Yes. Has Added You in bookmarks.
Hi, I can see from this post that very smart people talk about very big thing important to whole world. "Small people" want to be seen by somebody and in today's world they cannot. I support this petition 100% and I hope that it will matters to everyone.
Hi, I want to congratulate to all people that organize this petition. I hope that important people will see this and let other "small people" to have some rights.
Hi, I want to congratulate to all people that organize this petition. I hope that important people will see this and let other "small people" to have some rights.
Hi, I want to congratulate to all people that organize this petition. I hope that important people will see this and let other "small people" to have some rights.
Hi, I want to congratulate to all people that organize this petition. I hope that important people will see this and let other "small people" to have some rights.
power to the peope!..... but....
what happens till than?
...is that democrat fight freedom in political speech
Velix we understood your intention to congratulate everyone :D
this is why we must destroy the MSM now
Nicely put, Mr. Freiman.
Velix we understood your intention to congratulate everyone :D
Velix we understood your intention to congratulate everyone :D
Nicely put, Mr. Freiman.
We have been foolish to allow so much privatization.
Privatized Vote counting by partisans results in rigged elections. http://www.seconnecticut.com/elections.htm
voting machiines need to be open source and standardized.
Corporate media has resulted in advertising spam, trivia, distraction, silly news, and a dysfunctional political process. Right wing hate speech has brought us endless war, a new arms race, and a move toward nuclear weapons. http://www.seconnecticut.com/media.htm
Republicans are a curse on the US.
http://www.seconnecticut.com/explanation.htm