[FC-discuss] Free debates: the university perspective

[Thomas (TJ) Olsen]

its an interesting  angle and i very much like it
t
j
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gavin Baker" <grbaker at ufl.edu>
To: "FreeCulture.org Discuss" <discuss at freeculture.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 4:47 AM
Subject: [FC-discuss] Free debates: the university perspective


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> As you may know, in 2008 the United States will hold presidential
> elections, and the contest has already started. Some of the defining
> moments in the campaign will occur during televised debates. The audio
> and video of these debates will be broadcast on a variety of media
> outlets, most of them private, and will be copyrighted. As Lawrence
> Lessig wrote a few weeks ago:
> 
> "Technology has exploded the opportunity for people to comment upon, and
> spread political speech. Democracy is all about encouraging citizens to
> participate in that debate. And all of us, whether Democrats or
> Republicans, should push to remove unnecessary burdens to that
> participation.
> 
> Unfortunately, however, the uncertainty about the scope of copyright
> regulation is increasingly one such burden on Internet political speech.
> This next political cycle will see an explosion of citizen generated
> political content. Some of that speech will be crafted from clips taken
> from the Presidential debates. Some of that will be fantastically
> valuable and important. Yet as the law is right now, it is extremely
> difficult for an ordinary citizen to understand the boundaries of 'fair
> use,' or the limits to copyright law. It is likewise difficult for
> companies such as YouTube, or Blip.tv. Indeed, it is even difficult for
> a skilled practitioner. That uncertainty, if not checked, could produce
> a cloud over much of this political speech, as sites and universities
> don't know how much is too much. It will certainly create a temptation
> by some politicians to invoke copyright law to block particularly
> effective speech critical of them."
> 
> Therefore, Lessig circulated a letter signed by technology experts and
> political activists to the parties, asking them to require media outlets
> to release the debates into the public domain or the CC Attribution
> license. To date, neither of the parties has agreed; Democratic
> candidates Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Chris Dodd have endorsed the
> proposal; CNN has agreed, Fox and MSNBC have not.
> 
> To bring a new angle into this, many of these debates, and debates for
> other political offices, are held at universities. What do you think
> about asking universities to request that media outlets, as a condition
> of using their campuses, would apply this proposal? This seems in line
> with universities' historic commitment to free expression.
> 
> Gavin
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