The scheme embraces the Creative Commons licensing model, which
is based on the notion that some people may not want to exercise
all of the intellectual property rights the law affords them.
Its aim is to encourage creativity and innovation by forging a
middle-ground between "All rights reserved" and anarchy. It
describes its approach as "Some rights reserved."
The new Licence has been launched following a commitment in the
BBC's Building Public Value document, in which it pledged to "help
establish a common resource which will extend the public's access
while protecting the commercial rights of intellectual property
owners."
The Licence therefore permits the non-commercial use of material
contained in the Archive but subject to rules that ensure that, in
summary:
- anything created from material downloaded from the Archive is
also licensed under the scheme;
- all contributors to the material must be acknowledged;
- the material is not used for campaigning or derogatory
purposes; and
- the material is for use primarily within the UK.
The hope is that pilot download schemes will help fuel creative
activity across Britain as people utilise the footage in personal
projects, classroom presentations and their own artistic
creations.
In the long term the aim is that some of those creations can be
uploaded back on to the web site from where the content was
obtained, to be shared with others across the internet.
A web site, creativearchive.bbc.co.uk, has also been launched.
This will announce news of material as it becomes available from
all the partners in the scheme, and provide relevant links to
material on their sites.
Each of the partners in the Creative Archive Licence Group will
launch pilot download schemes later in the year.
The BBC will initially be making footage from natural history
and factual programmes available from later this summer, while
Channel 4 has promised to deliver a selection of content.
The British Film Institute will be releasing silent comedy,
early literary adaptations, newsreel footage and archive footage of
British cities in the early 20th century, while the Open University
will make available video and audio teaching material from a range
of genres including geography, science and history, as well as
footage from the popular OU and BBC series Rough Science.
In addition, Teachers' TV - which already offers downloads of
its programmes - will be releasing its content under the Creative
Archive Licence for a pilot period.
"The Creative Archive Licence provides a unique solution to one
of the key challenges of rights in the digital age, allowing us to
increase the public value of our archives by giving people the
chance to use video and audio material for their own non-commercial
purposes," said Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC.
"All four partners in the Creative Archive Licence Group feel
this is a fantastic opportunity for other broadcasters and rights
holders, and we would urge them to join us," he added.
