Tony Yarusso's Blog

As Lessig reported, "CNN [US presidential early] debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate". The details of what this means are not yet known, but regardless this is a great step in the right direction, both for the election and for free content. This comes following his letter to the Democratic and Republican national conventions asking them not to officially sanction any debate unless it is released to the public domain or licensed by the Creative Commons (Attribution) license. Additionally, Senator and Democratic candidate Barack Obama made headlines with a similar letter to DNC chairman Howard Dean.

So what's it mean? Well, first off it means that people are noticing the restrictions placed on content, and spreading that awareness. Additionally, especially with the emphasis in Obama's letter, some are able to distinguish between appropriate circumstances for legal restriction and cases where content should be entirely free, in the best interest of the public. That alone is a step forward in informing the public about licensing issues and pushing for more reasonable terms.

Politically speaking, it again means that many more people will be much more informed, and it will be legal for them to be so. The extensive reach of sites like Digg, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace on the internet to spread content, ideas, and open discussion is phenomenal, and being able to use those as part of the political process is something we are still only beginning to see the power and value of.

One aspect that has not received a lot of attention yet (but hopefully will now) is the file formats to be used when the videos are released on CNN's own site. While what is common for major news sites is to publish media in what they see as the most common format (ie, the Microsoft Windows default ones), resulting in WMV, MP3, and similar files, which are restricted by copyright, patent, or other licensing issues such not not all people, machines, or software are able to use them. If CNN is to live up to its promise of "without restrictions", this will need to change. I sent a note through their online feedback form raising the issue, and would encourage you to do so as well. The automatic reply I received noted that they do not generally respond individually, but their contents will be provided to the news division the next business day, so perhaps we'll see a public response if enough people ask. The text of mine is below:

I recently read a copy of your press release declaring that "CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions". First, I wanted to congratulate and thank you for taking that step. Second, I was wondering if you could provide details of what that means. Will the debates be declared in the public domain, licensed under some form of Creative Commons, or some other free license, and if so which one? Also, which media formats will they be made available in? In order to live up to your statement, at least one option should be a free format such as Ogg Theora, as described on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeFormats, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_file_format, and http://www.theora.org/theorafaq.html; otherwise there will be restrictions on who can watch them from the file format licensing issues alone.

Looking forward to details, and again I applaud your move for openness.

[Edit: I have now found that Obama has been joined by John Edwards and Chris Dodd, who have written similar letters.]