CSPAN embraces freely copyable video

Carl sez,

I'm pleased to pass on the news that C-SPAN has announced "two major initiatives designed to greatly expand citizen access to its online video of federal government activities, such as congressional hearings, agency briefings, and White House events." (Link to Press Release)

The first congressional hearing under this new policy is up live on the Internet Archive. (Link to 2.5 hours of video from C-SPAN)

The issue of C-SPAN's archive would not have been an issue if the Congress of the United States had provided an adequate video record of their public proceedings. The standard which congress should be striving is that broadcast-quality video from all congressional hearings should be available for download on the Internet.

C-SPAN did a brave and good thing. Let's see if Congress rises to the challenge of providing a full video record.

Link

(Thanks, Carl!)

See also: Dear CSPAN: you're not Disney, Congress isn't Mickey