Post by Andy Henderson on Oct 20, 2004 21:20:06 GMT
Dutch parliamentarians favour releasing public broadcast images into public domain
20/10/2004 by Joe Figueiredo
Parliamentarians from Dutch ruling and opposition parties unanimously agreed that (most) images currently owned by Dutch public broadcasters should be released into the public domain and allowed to be distributed online.
The four politicians - Kees Vendrik (Green Left), Ankie Broekers-Knol (Liberal Democrat), Martijn van Dam (Labour) and Nicolien van Vroonhoven (Christian Democrat) - who were participating in a debate at a symposium on copyright in Amsterdam last Friday also promised to ask the government to take action.
Chairing the debate was Erik Huizer, who is responsible for digital distribution at NOB, the company that provides technical production support to Dutch public radio and television broadcasters.
He described the problems he encounters in his work: “Technically, there are increasing distribution possibilities. However, [distribution] rules are the obstacles. Even a broadcaster’s own production rights forbid online distribution. Programmes made with public funds belong in the public domain.”
“Based on my experience in education, you just about have to fall on your knees and beg for images. This is ridiculous,“ said Ms Broekers-Knol, member of the Upper Chamber, supported by her fellow parliamentary colleagues.
However, Ms Van Vroonhoven did concede that rights to such material released into the public domain should be selective and vary according to usage.
Her comments dovetailed nicely in with the symposium’s theme, Creative Commons (CC), and with recommendations made by Bernt Hugenholtz - professor in information law who sits on a government advisory panel on copyrights and is a proponent of CC - who told the symposium that this sort of licence is ideally suited for such public-domain material.
CC, the brainchild of Lawrence Lessig, law professor at California’s Stanford University, was introduced in the Netherlands in June and is a simpler way of handling copyrights on the internet.
CC licences are less restrictive (unlike today’s ‘all rights reserved’ ones) and come in 12 grades of ‘freedom’, based on usage (where, how and by whom).
Source(s): Planet News