"Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give the public full access to all the corporation’s programme archives.
Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet."
Does the BBC hold the copyright to everything ever shown on the BBC? Or can, say, one of the Monty Python guys refuse to have their old show available free on the web, since it would cut into sales of the DVD collection?
Anybody here familiar enough with British copyright law to know what problems there might be for them to have all the archives available for free?
Pretty sure that if a programme is made by the BBC they own the copyright. Not the performers. Seems to make sense anyway. The DVDs of those programmes are also marketed by the BBC.
Presumably, if the BBC has the rights to broadcast something on the TV, they also have the rights to broadcast it over the internet if they so wish.
I was using Monty Python as an example, because I thought the members of the troupe might have some ownership of the name, and are not just performers. That’s just speculation, though.
I was using Monty Python as an example, because I thought the members of the troupe might have some ownership of the name, and are not just performers. That’s just speculation, though.
Though this may be true, speaking as someone who’s actually been in the BBC Archives, I can attest that the volume of material they have is still quite extraordinary, and this is quite an ambitious proposal. I remember talking to the head of the Motion Picture division of the Library of Congress, and he said that if he could, he’d stream everything in the LoC’s collection. Archival practices are all about access in the long run–the more widespread the better (though naturally, there are legal and economic realities that make this impossible for most institutions currently).
I know the question of artist’s repeat fees is a problem. This has already occured on the new BBC7 radio channel which broadcasts mainly old programmes from the archives. Most BBC programmes can be heard via their web site not only in real time but also " on demand" for up till seven days after the original broadcast. The BBC have found that they cannot offer this facility on these old programmes because ,when the original artist’s contracts were signed, nobody had any idea that this technology would be available . So because no mention of this in the contract no “hear it now” service.
On the subject of artist’s repeat fees and so on: I wrote jokes for a BBC Radio comedy show in the 80s, and have the contract I signed in front of me.
Briefly (and IANAL), it appears to give the BBC certain rights to broadcast the material within a period of 2 years, for a standard percentage of the initial fee.
However, I notice two later points which read:
and:
Since I know that there are dopers who make their living at this kind of thing, I would happily provide the whole text of the contract (if I was assured that I wouldn’t be guilty of copyright infringement by doing so :rolleyes: ).
It seems to me, though, that if other Artists’ contracts contain similar wording, the BBC have given themselves a fair amount of lee-way.