DJALCHEMI

Friends of the BBC Creative Archive

As the BBC announces a "radical manifesto" for its future, heavy on digital Britain and "public value", I've come across a campaign for the BBC Creative Archive. So far the main action has been an open letter, urging that the archive should be: broad, accessible, free (for non-commercial use), whole (i.e. not just excerpts of material), soon, complete (i.e. including independently produced material commissioned by the BBC) and sustainable.

It's too late to sign up for the letter, but you can join a free mailing list to keep in touch. [Update, September 02005: This mailing list has now been superseded by the UK FreeCulture list.] There is also a project page at the Union for the Public Domain, with several links to features on the Creative Archive. See also my earlier posting on the archive.

The campaign has attracted many people concerned with promoting less restrictive copyright regulation, such as Cory Doctorow, who take heart from the BBC's adoption of Creative Commons licensing. In his Paid Content commentary on BBCi Rafat Ali characterises the campaign as foolhardy and liable to be undermined by lawyers — all the more reason to campaign?

Thanks to Seb for the original link that led me to find these links. The BBC is inviting feedback on its detailed proposals for the future which you can download in full.