BBC Presents An Open News Archive

Cus writes "The BBC have opened a section of their news archive under a Creative Archive license. Nearly 80 items covering the last 50 years are available, with the full list available on their site. Paul Gerhardt the project director of the Creative Archive License Group, from the official announcement: 'The BBC's telling of those stories is part of our heritage, and now that the UK public have the chance to share and keep them we're keen to know how they will be used.'"

Comments

Beta test is for UK only

[Vainglorious Coward]

"and now that the UK public have the chance to share and keep them"

And the rest of us don't?

The archive is only available to IP addresses originating from the UK.

Re:What about the rest of us

[Angostura]

I imagine also that this is also, at least partly, a political/public-opinion issue.

The BBC is fairly regularly attacked in the UK for spending so much on a Web presence that is heavily used by an international audience but which is paid for by a tax on TVs. It would get a right old kicking from the UK press and in particular the Murdoch press if it made content that "we have paid for" freely available overseas. For those who don't realise - the BBC's World Service is paid for directly by the foreign and commonwealth office, not from the TV licence fee.

The License fee is supposed to be spent entirely on the provision of services to the UK population. The BBC is watching its back here.

Wha...?

[lheal]

Here in the US we seem to be much more wrapped up in who owns the rights to something and how to make money from it.

You're holding up the BBC as an paragon of social virtue by comparing them to whom? CNN, or PBS? The BBC was created for this kind of thing. Making content available to the public is straight out of the BBC Charter:

OBJECTS OF THE CORPORATION
3. The objects of the Corporation are as follows:-
(a) To provide, as public services, sound and television broadcasting services (whether by analogue or digital means) and to provide sound and television programmes of information, education and entertainment for general reception in Our United Kingdom [...]