Richard’s Educational Technology Blog

Anyone who has been watching the news lately has seen a growing amount of tension from media producers to tighten copyright laws and quash unauthorized use of their intellectual property. The worry is that they are losing money from the modification of their products without receiving licensing royalties. However in this time of increasing, and at times very limiting, copyright laws, some companies have taken a very different approach. Recently the BBC released Backstage BBC, a site that allows free access to all of the BBC’s media for non-commercial purposes. In an interview with On The Media, a BBC spokesperson explained that in the short time Backstage BBC has been available they have already seen many exciting and creative products that Backstage BBC users have come up with using their media. It is important to note is that the BBC has recognized that the benefits they receive from the creativity of their users far surpasses the benefits they would receive from penny-pinching over royalties from non-commercial users of their media. It would be interesting to consider how creativity would be sparked in the US if some of the large media corporations would consider taking a similar approach.