Save the Internet
MoveOn.org Civic Action
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: PLEASE CONTACT:
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 adamgreen@moveon.org
DNC Announces 6 Sanctioned Debates:
Bipartisan Alliance Says DNC Must Ensure That Presidential Debate Video Is Released To The Public
Letters to RNC and DNC request all debate footage be put in public domain or licensed as “Creative Commons” – freely able to be shared, blogged, excerpted, and put on YouTube
Debates “belong to the people, not to powerful media interests” – Markos Moulitsas, DailyKos
CNN will free their debate footage, but NBC continues to live in the past with restrictive terms
Today, as the Democratic National Committee announced its list of 6 officially-sanctioned presidential debates, a large bipartisan alliance re-iterated its call on the Democratic and Republican National Committees to ensure that all presidential debate video can be legally shared, re-used, and blogged about without fear of legal repercussion. This would allow people to share candidates’ issue positions through sites like YouTube.
“The elements of our democracy, which include the debates, belong to the people, not to powerful media interests,” said Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos. “I'm hopeful the DNC does the right thing and ensures that these important debates are freely available to all of us who will want to use those images and video for commentary and debate.”
Democratic candidates Barack Obama , John Edwards , and Chris Dodd have publicly joined this call, adding their voices to the alliance that sent open letters to the DNC and RNC, including: Lawrence Lessig and other leading technologists, the founders of Craiglist and Wikipedia, national women's/civil rights/veterans/labor organizations, progressives like MoveOn.org Civic Action and DailyKos.com, conservatives like Redstate.com and Michelle Malkin, and former Federal Election Commission Chair Brad Smith.
CNN recently announced : “CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate” and added “candidates need to be held accountable for what they say throughout the election process.” Unfortunately, when NBC aired presidential debates recently, the video terms were very restrictive —with clauses like “Internet use is not permitted” and “Excerpts may not be archived.” When asked why, they said, “That's our policy.”
The DNC should use its leverage to push stations like NBC to stop living in the past and instead follow CNN’s lead,” said Adam Green, of MoveOn.org Civic Action. “This is about the Internet empowering the little guy in our democracy. The big TV networks should not be the only ones determining which sound bites are newsworthy after a debate – everyday people should be able to put candidates’ positions on YouTube and share them with others without fear of breaking the law.
Rather than allowing television networks to retain exclusive rights to debate footage, the alliance asked that debate footage be explicitly be put in the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license – a concept spearheaded by Lessig . Such a license makes video free for anyone to access, edit, and share with others with proper attribution.
“Technology has exploded the opportunity for people to comment upon and spread political speech,” said Lessig. “I am very hopeful that both the Republicans and the Democrats will help encourage the extraordinary public discussion around the election that the Internet has enabled, by removing any uncertainty about the right of the people to comment upon the speech of presidential candidates.”
“There is no job more important than that of the President, so it is critical that both parties conduct the discussions and debates between candidates in a transparent way,” said Michael Turk, former eCampaign Director for the Republican National Committee “Allowing unfettered access to the footage of the debates is a step in that direction.”
Below are the letters to the RNC and DNC. Interviews with signatories are available upon request.
# # #
DNC Announces Dates, Media Sponsors and Locations for Sanctioned Debates
http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/05/dnc_announces_d_1.php
Letters publicly released 4/25/07 at: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003755.shtml
LETTER TO DNC
Chairman Howard Dean
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 863-8000
Chairman Dean:
We are writing to request that the Democratic National Committee help usher in the next stage of the Internet revolution that has made democracy more accessible to regular people and made politicians more accountable to their constituents.
In this letter, top technologists, progressive grassroots organizations, bloggers, and others are asking the DNC to ensure that all video footage from Democratic debates is able to be shared, re-used, and freely blogged about without the uploader of the video being deemed a lawbreaker.
In 1996, presidential candidates communicated on websites for the first time. In 2000, presidential candidates accepted online contributions for the first time. In 2004, your campaign helped usher in a new type of Internet-based people-powered activism.
In 2008, we need to ensure that the promise of online video is not inhibited. In the past, television stations that broadcast presidential debates have retained exclusive rights to debate footage after the event was over. By and large, such contract terms were not noticed by voters, activists, or news junkies – there was no widespread forum for regular people to share video content even if they wanted to.
But in the age of online video sharing, corporations retaining exclusive rights to debate footage is an obvious barrier to democratic participation. No concerned voter should ever be labeled a lawbreaker for wanting to share video of a presidential debate with others.
The Democratic National Committee recently announced it would sanction six official presidential debates. We, the undersigned, request that no debate get the official sanction of the DNC unless contract terms specify that video footage will be put into the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license – so that after the debate, the video will be free for anyone to access, edit, and share with others with proper attribution.
We ask you to follow the lead of C-SPAN, which this year announced they would allow expanded use of their video content by others – paving the way for a more informed electorate through online video sharing.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss details, we’d be happy to make time for that discussion.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Lessig – Professor, Stanford Law School & Founder, Center for Internet and Society
Craig Newmark – Founder of Craigslist
Jimmy Wales – Founder of Wikipedia
Brad Smith - Former FEC Chair, and current Chair of the Center for Competitive Politics
Wade Henderson – President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Paul Rieckhoff – Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Kim Gandy – President, National Organization for Women
Andy Stern - International President, SEIU
Karen Ackerman - Political Director, AFL-CIO
Eli Pariser – Executive Director, MoveOn.org Civic Action
James Rucker – Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org
Markos Moulitsas – Founder of DailyKos.com
Arianna Huffington – Founder of the Huffington Post
David Halperin - Director, Campus Progress & Senior Vice President, Center for American Progress
Alexandra Acker - Executive Director, Young Democrats of America
Roger Hickey – Co-director, Campaign for America's Future
Josh Silver – Executive Director, Free Press
Shari Steele, Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fred von Lohmann – Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Intellectual Property issues)
Tim Wu – Professor, Columbia Law School & Founder of Columbia’s Program on Law & Technology
Cory Doctorow – Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California
Micah Sifry – Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
David Moore – Executive Director, Participatory Politics Foundation and OpenCongress.org
Spencer Overton – Professor, GW Law & Founder of Blackprof.com blog
Robert Greenwald – Director, BraveNewFilms
Dan Manatt – Founder of PoliticsTV.com
Duncan Black – Founder of Atrios
Jane Hamsher – Founder of FireDogLake.com
Christy Hardin Smith – Front-page blogger, FireDogLake.com
Matt Stoller – Front-page blogger, MyDD.com
Chris Bowers – Front-page blogger, MyDD.com
David Waldman – Front-page blogger, DailyKos.com
Christopher M. Rabb – Founder and Chief Evangelist, Afro-Netizen
John Amato – Founder of Crooksandliars.com
John Aravosis – Founder of AMERICAblog.com
Don Hazen – Executive Editor, Alternet.org
Lowell Feld - Founder of RaisingKaine.com & former Netroots Coordinator, Webb for Senate (Virginia blog)
Juan Melli – Founder of Blue Jersey.com (New Jersey blog)
Mark Nickolas – Publisher, BluegrassReport.org (Kentucky blog)
David Kravitz – Co-founder, BlueMassGroup.com (Massachusetts blog)
Matt Singer – Founder of LeftInTheWest.com & former blogger for Tester for Senate (Montana blog)
Hugh Jackson – Founder of LasVegasGleaner.com (Nevada blog)
Myrna Minx – Founder of RenoDiscontent.com (Nevada blog)
Adam Green – Civic Communications Director, MoveOn.org Civic Action
Jane Fleming Kleeb – Executive Director, Young Voter PAC
Mike Lux – American Family Voices
Nicholas Reville – Co-Founder, Participatory Culture Foundation
Carl Malamud – Founder of Public.Resource.Org
Roz Lemieux – Executive Director, New Organizing Institute
Michael Silberman – Co-Founder and Director, EchoDitto
John Schwartz – Founder of Free Speech TV and freespeech.org
Paul Jay – CEO, Independent World Television and TheRealNews.com
Julie Bergman Sender – Filmmaker, Balcony Films
Garlin Gilchrist II – Blogger, TheSuperSpade.com
Helen De Michiel -- Co-Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Jay Harris – President & Publisher, Mother Jones
Bruce Dixon – Black Agenda Report
Jill Tubman – Publisher, JackAndJill.com politics blog
Frank Emspak – Executive Producer, Workers Independent News
Lark Corbeil – Founder & Managing Editor, Public News Service
Tracy Van Slyke – Publisher, In These Times
Joel Bleifuss – Editor, In These Times
Roberto Lovato – New America Media
David Michaelis – Director of Current Affairs, Link TV
Ty West – Senior Producer, NOW on PBS
Marc Favreau – Editorial Director, The New Press
Ina Howard – Communications Director, The New Press
Linda Jue – Executive Director, New Voices in Independent Journalism
Rinku Sen – Publisher, Colorlines magazine
LETTER TO RNC
Sen. Mel Martinez, General Chairman
Hon. Mike Duncan, Chairman
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 863-8500
Chairmen Martinez and Duncan:
We are writing to request that the Republican National Committee help usher in the next stage of the Internet revolution that has made democracy more accessible to regular people and made politicians more accountable to their constituents.
In this letter, top technologists, grassroots organizations, bloggers, and others are asking the RNC to ensure that all video footage from Republican debates is able to be shared, re-used, and freely blogged about without the uploader of the video being deemed a lawbreaker.
In 1996, presidential candidates communicated on websites for the first time. In 2000, presidential candidates accepted online contributions for the first time. 2004 ushered in a new type of Internet-based people-powered activism.
In 2008, we need to ensure that the promise of online video is not inhibited. In the past, television stations that broadcast presidential debates have retained exclusive rights to debate footage after the event was over. By and large, such contract terms were not noticed by voters, activists, or news junkies – there was no widespread forum for regular people to share video content even if they wanted to.
But in the age of online video sharing, corporations retaining exclusive rights to debate footage is an obvious barrier to democratic participation. No concerned voter should ever be labeled a lawbreaker for wanting to share video of a presidential debate with others.
We, the undersigned, request that the Republican National Committee publicly urge state parties and other Republican debate sponsors to specify in debate contracts that video footage will be put into the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license – so that after the debate, the video will be free for anyone to access, edit, and share with others with proper attribution.
We ask you to follow the lead of C-SPAN, which this year announced they would allow expanded use of their video content by others – paving the way for a more informed electorate through online video sharing.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss details, we’d be happy to make time for that discussion.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Lessig – Professor, Stanford Law School & Founder, Center for Internet and Society
Craig Newmark – Founder of Craigslist
Jimmy Wales – Founder of Wikipedia
Brad Smith - Former FEC Chair, and current Chair of the Center for Competitive Politics
Michael Turk – Former eCampaign Director, Republican National Committee
Michelle Malkin – Conservative columnist and blogger, and founder of michellemalkin.com and hotair.com
Mike Krempasky – Founder of RedState.com
Glenn Reynolds – Professor, University of Tennessee Law, and founder of Instapundit.com blog
Dr. William Green – President, RightMarch.com
Shari Steele, Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fred von Lohmann – Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Intellectual Property issues)
Tim Wu – Professor, Columbia Law School & Founder of Columbia’s Program on Law & Technology
Cory Doctorow – Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California
Paul Rieckhoff – Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Wade Henderson – President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Kim Gandy – President, National Organization for Women
Andy Stern - International President, SEIU
Karen Ackerman - Political Director, AFL-CIO
Micah Sifry – Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
Arianna Huffington – Huffington Post
David Moore – Executive Director, Participatory Politics Foundation and OpenCongress.org
Josh Silver – Executive Director, Free Press
Carl Malamud – Founder of Public.Resource.Org
Roger Hickey – Co-director, Campaign for America's Future
John Schwartz – Founder of Free Speech TV
Paul Jay – CEO, Independent World Television
Helen De Michiel -- Co-Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Nicholas Reville – Co-Founder, Participatory Culture Foundation
Lark Corbeil – Founder & Managing Editor, Public News Service
David Michaelis – Director of Current Affairs, Link TV
Linda Jue – Executive Director, New Voices in Independent Journalism
