Al Jazeera gets free culture
Freeing the source, for others to build upon. Read about Al Jazeera's decision in Fred's post for the CC blog:
Fred Benenson, January 13th, 2009
Al Jazeera is releasing 12 broadcast quality videos today shot in Gaza under Creative Commons’ least restrictive Attribution license. Each professionally recorded video has a detailed information page and is hosted on blip.tv allowing for easy downloads of the original files and integration into Miro. The value of this footage is best described by an International Herald Tribune/New York Times article describing the release:
In a conflict where the Western news media have been largely prevented from reporting from Gaza because of restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera has had a distinct advantage. It was already there.
More importantly, the permissive CC-BY license means that the footage can be used by anyone including, rival broadcasters, documentary makers, and bloggers, so long as Al Jazeera is credited.
There’s more information over at Al Jazeera’s CC repository, and in our press release. You can also add the Al Jazeera repository to your Miro feeds by clicking here.
Comments (5)
Thank you for posting this Larry. These videos contain valuable footage of the massacre that has taken place in Gaza - footage that his been hidden from us because it reveals suffering that is brutal to watch and is impossible to defend.
[I can't figure out how to write the comment I want to write without risking more than it's worth :-(. The problem is while there may be a way to do it, knowing that is itself rather useless - there certainly exists a series of stock trades which would make me very rich, but I don't know them either]
It is easy to tell your own story in deftly edited video. It is also esy to have such images when your enemy hides behind women's skirts and children. They do not show Hamas' indiscriminate attacks all on non-military targets. Israel wants to live in peace while Hamas is committed to Israels destruction. They have consistantly turned down a two state solution because they will only be satisfied with Israels destruction. Their videos didn't show the hundreds of truckloads of supplies Israel has sent through, nor the Palestinians being treated in Israeli hospitals. Let's talk about truth in advertising!
They may have lifted copyright restrictions, but the reaction to the Danish cartoons should give anybody pause before they re-use these videos in any way critical of Palestinians or Muslims.
If this is an appeal to authority, a logical falacy often used by lawyers, you might want to find an uncontroversial authority.
This actually support Andrew Keens argument (a restatement of a much older argment) that technology is not always good or used by the right side. I think it’s used by both sides in this conflit.