Creative Commons and Open Media Project

I'm starting a new thread on Creative Commons that picks up on these comments:

http://groups.drupal.org/node/19669#comment-68554
http://groups.drupal.org/node/19669#comment-68578
http://groups.drupal.org/node/19669#comment-68596
http://groups.drupal.org/node/19669#comment-68738

There are several factors to consider in transitioning to using Creative Commons licensing:

1) Current actual practice & historical practice
2) Current policies and procedures
3) Current cablecast contract

At channelAustin we have historically told producers - at orientation sessions and in classes - that they own their own content (although specific language about copyright ownership is not always clear). We have a policy that although they own their content, that since they are using public access resources to produce this content, they need it to play on the channels before they do anything else with it. The cablecast agreement (or contract) doesn't really spell out any licensing or rights issue at all.

In practice, we have producers who have used resources here to produce programs, and then have licensed that content to other access centers and even commercial stations in other parts of the country. This is a small minority. Just a few.

So it is this context and backdrop and historical precedent that we have to approach this.

A member of the Austin Telecommunications Commission on a recent visit here point blank said that we can't require producers to use Creative Commons licensing. Mind you, that was merely one opinion. Not a legal one. But it is a perception that may be shared by others. We haven't actually consulted with attorneys or with City contract managers as to what we technically can or cannot do with respect to Creative Commons.

What we think we can do is make Creative Commons licensing a requirement for:

1) Streaming producers' program on the web site
2) Making producers' programs available as video on demand
3) Making producers' programs available to other community TV stations
4) Long-term archiving and storage of digital files

(NOTE: This is proposal I'm making - we may end up with something else entirely - I'm putting this out there for discussion.)

What that would mean is that a producer who does not agree to Creative Commons licensing would only have his or her program cablecast on the cable channel, and that would be it.

However, I can see technical and programming issues associated with this:

1) It'd be much easier to simultaneously stream everything that is cablecast and not have to figure out and deal with which ones are streamed and which ones are not.
2) Similarly, generally keeping track of which digital files have CC licenses and which don't just adds another layer of complexity into the work-flow.
3) This probably requires patches or additional development to underlying modules that enable this.

With the understanding that we are a beta site, we are doing more than beta testing code, we are beta testing the implementation of new ways of doing things in different environments and seeing what happens and what obstacles emerge, and how to overcome them.