Watch the 1967 Bob Hope special, save America's public domain videos

By at 6:19 am Sunday, Dec 13

Last week, I wrote about Carl Malamud's upcoming testimony on the need to free America's governmental video archives for public consumption. This material is all in the public domain, but the government sells it through retail partners, to the taxpayers who funded its production. Carl is trying to convince them to free the video you paid for for your use. He wants to go into his testimony with some impressive viewership numbers to demonstrate the lurking desire for this video.

So Carl's pitch is simple: Watch some awesome public domain videos and do good for the world.

Now, Carl Malamud sez, "In preparation for my testimony on the future of the National Archives before the House Oversight Committee, we forked out another $461 and uploaded 28 more government videos. I'm trying to show that people care about this stuff, so I'll report the total number of views to the Congress. This batch has some amazing stuff. In addition to the Bob Hope Christmas Special, there are documentaries about the Manhattan Rhythm Kings, the Cambodian Royal Ballet, and James Audubon. If you're into spooks, don't miss the CIA's True Stories, a special on Mind Control and Hallucination, and KGB Connections."

Watch the public domain on YouTube.

Watch the public domain on the Internet Archive. (Thanks, Carl!)

Previously:

Read more 

Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

Where not otherwise specified, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.