Sunday, August 15, 2010

Gruen, Greens and CC

Chances are, you've already seen the Republic of Everyone's 'If you think, vote Greens' ad, which caused quite a stir last week.
The Greens were keen to use the ad, but it wasn't possible because the ABC asks all ad agencies who participate in The Pitch to sign over copyright for the ads they produce.
Greens spokeswoman Ebony Bennett confirmed The Greens contacted the ABC and Republic of Everyone over the possibility of using the ad, but the ABC would not allow the clip to be used during the election.

The ABC says it cannot be seen to pick sides in the campaign.
It got me thinking, I wonder if the situation would have been different if the ABC licensed content featured on the Gruen Nation under a Creative Commons licence?
If licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence, wouldn't it have meant that other people could have made use of the ad without it seeming like the ABC was endorsing the Greens? And wouldn't it also mean that, in general terms, people would be able to remix content from The Pitch. (You often hear suggestions about what the ad-makers could have done differently -- this would give fans the opportunity to demonstrate what could have been done differently).
This is a genuine question. I could be wrong. So I'm genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts on this.
Of course, the ad has been seen by heaps of people regardless -- over a million people tuned in to watch Gruen Nation last week, and the ad has been shared a lot on social media.
Leave a comment or tweet me.

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