Creative Archive gets a step closer
The big wigs at the BBC have been talking for a long time about opening up the Corporation’s vast archive for use by the British public.
 Our New Errand Boy (GB, 1905) bfi/Williamson Kinematograph Company. Licenced to me and to you under the Creative Archive Licence. |
A while ago they announced the Creative Archive project which will eventually provide access to public service audio and video archives over the internet. Members of the British public (who after all paid for the material via their licence fee in the first place) will be able to download, play, edit, re-use and share clips - even making their own compilations. All for free, all totally legal.
I thought it sounded like an exciting initiative when I first heard about it, but it has taken ages and ages for it to get off the ground.
Things seem to have taken a step forward on Monday, with the launch of the Creative Archive Licence. This is the (actually quite easy to read and understand) legal blurb laying out the terms under which content will be licenced. In summary, it appears you can do what you like with it as long as its not for commercial use and if you share your creations then you agree to licence them under the same terms.
More exciting than the legal document itself is a bit more confirmation that the Creative Archive, as has been rumoured, will not just offer BBC content. Auntie has clubbed together with the bfi, Channel 4 and the Open University. The archive could end up being massive, including huge volumes of the best audio, TV and film material ever produced in Britain!
The Creative Archive has entered a trial period, with various pilots to be carried out over the next 18 months. Now is the time it starts to get useful…
The bfi have taken the lead in launching the first four clips available to download right now under the new licence: Our New Errand Boy (a silent comedy from 1905), a newsreel from 1905 featuring some morris dancers performing in France, and two scenes from a 1913 production of Hamlet. Each clip is available in Windows Media, Quicktime and good quality MPEG1.
Expect to see some of my creations before too long!