Obama wants debate video available to anyone

Cory Bergman May 3rd, 2007

Barack Obama has a bold, promising idea that’s going to ruffle some media feathers. He wants video of the Democratic debates be made available in the public domain or with a Creative Commons license. Currently, debates that are hosted by media organizations — like MSNBC’s Republican debate — have restrictions for outside use, but Obama suggests that they waive their copyright so that the content can be shared openly online. He writes in a letter to Democratic Committee Chair Howard Dean:

“I am a strong believer in the importance of copyright, especially in a digital age. But there is no reason that this particular class of content needs the protection. We have incentive enough to debate. The networks have incentive enough to broadcast those debates. Rather than restricting the product of those debates, we should instead make sure that our democracy and citizens have the chance to benefit from them in all the ways that technology makes possible.”

Update: MSNBC.com streamed the debate live and it will post it in its entirety. The debate will also be available on Politico.com. MSNBC VP of communications Jeremy Gaines points out the network is not waiving its rights to the footage, but he said it will be available throughout the election season for users to watch or link to their own sites.

Update: Watch the archived debate here on MSNBC.com.

Update: One-third of debate questions were submitted to Politico.com.