The Pelosi Principle (Was C-SPAN and Congress)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Carl Malamud <carl () media org>
Date: March 7, 2007 7:41:08 PM EST
To: Ethan Ackerman <eackerma () u washington edu>
Cc: dave () farber net
Subject: The Pelosi Principle (Was C-SPAN and Congress)

Ethan Ackerman wrote:
> I too am glad at the relaxation in C-Span's "copyright policy," AND
> glad that this has the effect of better transparency for Congressional
> activity, but let us not forget the large extent to which C-Span is
> still claiming an interest in what is an un-copyrighted (and/or
> uncopyrightable) work.  In many ways this press release is analogous
> to Walt Disney magnanimously "allowing" parents to tell their children
> the bedtime story of Snow White.
>
> William Patry (the former House Judiciary Committee copyright counsel
> and a heavyweight in copyright law) articulates these points in more
> detail here - including a comment from Carl:
>
> http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2007/02/c-span-and-originality.html

Hi Dave and Ethan -

This note is a bit long, but I think it deals with an
important point.  And, I think the above comment is shining
light in the wrong direction.

I understand the issues involved on validity of copyright,
and I place great weight on Patry's opinion.  But, let
us not forget that nobody can possibly be "right" about
an issue like this without a whole bunch of adjudication.
And, that is *always* a crap shoot.

C-SPAN didn't have to do what they did.  They went way
beyond their archive of congressional hearings to adopt
a creative commons-like approach on *any* government
proceedings they cover and into the future.  And, the
policy is pretty liberal: you can't charge people money
to see their video in a theatre, for example.  But,
ad-supported bloggers certainly get to use their data.

I think they should get kudos.  If you're looking for
places that need work, we should shine our flashlights
on the Congress and make them understand that they should
adopt this principle:

    A hearing isn't truly public unless there is
    broadcast-quality video available for download on
    the Internet.

I've taken to calling this the Pelosi Principle of
Publicness, in the hope that if the Speaker of the House
adopted this as a goal, it would go a really long way to
making it true.

I'm not saying this benchmark needs to be immediately
achieved in all hearings.  But, I think it is a goal to
work towards.

I've explained to a number of congressional officials
that the Pelosi Principle of Publicness is very much
like the issues the SEC faced with EDGAR.  At first, they
just wanted to do a web site.  But, I explained that while
the Internet certainly welcomed their retail presence,
it was also important that they played a wholesale role,
making the unadulturated raw data in bulk available to
anybody who wanted to add value to it.  That's what makes
it public.

Carl


-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/@now
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com