As reported on the LA Times blog, during the primaries, a bunch of us (both Democrats and Republicans) called on the parties to demand that the networks adopt "open" or "free debate" principles, to assure that the debates would be available to everyone to use or reuse as they choose.
We're back. In the extended entry below is another letter, signed by another bipartisan mix, calling on McCain and Obama to commit to "open debate principles." You can get a PDF of the letter here. ...
Specifically, we ask you to embrace these two “open debate” principles for the 2008 debates:
The presidential debates are for the benefit of the public. Therefore, the right to speak about the debates ought to be “owned” by the public, not controlled by the media.
During the primaries, a large
coalition asked that media companies release rights to presidential debate
video to ensure that key moments can be legally blogged about, shared on YouTube, or otherwise shared without fear of legal repercussion.
CNN, ABC, and NBC agreed to release video rights. But one media company threatened legal action against Senator McCain for using a debate clip to spread a message. Such control over political speech is inconsistent with our democracy.
We therefore call upon both candidates to commit to a principle that whenever you debate publicly, the raw footage of that debate will be dedicated to the public domain. Those in charge of the video feed should be directed to make it free for anyone to use. ...
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
