Monty Python og fri kultur – en succeshistorie

Kan man tjene penge på at forære sit arbejde væk? Tilsyneladende kan man godt, noterer Times Onlines Tech Blog:

Fed up with being “ripped off” by the hours of illegal clips of their shows on YouTube, they put up a selection of their classic clips.

In a launch video, the Monty Python team said: “We know who you are, we know where you live and we could come after you in ways too horrible to tell. But being the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we’ve figured a better way to get our own back: We’ve launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube.

“But we want something in return. None of your drivelling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”

I know that Python, with its legion of passionate fans, may be an extreme case, but thousands of people did exactly what they were told, clicked on the link to Amazon and bought the videos. The YouTube blog noted:

“When Monty Python launched their channel in November, not only did their YouTube videos shoot to the top of the most viewed lists, but their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 per cent.”

In other words, Monty Python gave away some content for free and made a pile of money. Food for thought.

Link: The Holy Grail of free content on the web

Al Jazeera udsender billeddækning af krigen i Gaza under Creative Commons-licens

Al Jazeera og Creative Commons fortæller i en fælles pressemeddelelse, at Al Jazeera har besluttet at oprette en pulje af videoer i TV-kvalitet, der er tilgængelige for offentligheden under en ren “Attribution”-licens, der indebærer, at man må redigere filmene som man vil og udsende dem både kommercielt og ikke-kommercielt – den eneste betingelse er, at man skal angive Al Jazeera som kilde.

I pressemeddelelsen hedder det bl.a.:

Al Jazeera Network today announced the world’s first repository of broadcast-quality video footage released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license. Select Al Jazeera video footage – at this time, footage of the War in Gaza – will be available for free to be downloaded, shared, remixed, subtitled and eventually rebroadcasted by users and TV stations across the world with acknowledgement to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera will release its exclusive Arabic and English coverage produced by the Network’s correspondents and crews in the Gaza Strip online at http://cc.aljazeera.net. The ongoing war and crisis in Gaza, together with the scarcity of news footage available, make the repository a key resource for anyone producing content about the current situation.

Mohamed Nanabhay, who headed New Media at Al Jazeera and launched the project, stated: “As one of the only international broadcasters in Gaza, our coverage of the war has been unsurpassed. The launch of Al Jazeera’s Creative Commons Repository means that our Gaza footage will be made available under the most permissive Creative Commons license (CC-BY). With the flexibility of the license, we expect to introduce our outstanding coverage to an even wider audience across the world. This means that news outlets, filmmakers and bloggers will be able to easily share, remix, and reuse our footage.”

Lawrence Lessig – founder of the Creative Commons organization and Professor of Law at Stanford University – stated: “Al Jazeera is teaching an important lesson about how free speech gets built and supported. By providing a free resource for the world, the network is encouraging wider debate, and a richer understanding.”

I praksis betyder det, at publikum vil få meget lettere adgang til den del af Al Jazeeras udsendelser, der placeres i Creative Commons-‘puljen’, og at videoer herfra kan bruges af alverdens TV-stationer – som af hensyn til konkurrencen måske vil føle sig tvunget til at følge trop.

I første omgang betyder det i praksis også, at offentligheden vil få meget lettere adgang til billeder af krigen i Gaza – forhåbentlig vil TV-stationer som DR og TV2 tage imod tilbuddet, når nu de ikke selv har journalister i området.

Læs også:

Al Jazeera Creative Commons Repository
Al Jazeera Announces Launch of Free Footage Under Creative Commons License
Al Jazeera Launches Creative Commons Repository

Via Boing Boing.