Flap Over MSNBC's Refusal to Allow Internet Redistribution of Dems Debate

Last week's Democratic presidential debate, the first of the 2008 campaign, sparked its own debate this weekend, with some internet journalists chastising MSNBC after the news outlet refused to allow online media and bloggers to use clips of the debate. Jeff Jarvis first learned of the restrictions on Thursday and posted a copy of NBC's policy, which allows radio and TV to use excerpts of the debates, but specifically forbids internet use. Here's the pertinent text:

"News organizations, including radio, network television, cable television and local television may use excerpts of “The South Carolina Democratic Candidates Debate” subject to the following restrictions (internet use is not permitted):"

Check out Ars Technica and PrezVid for a breakdown of the controversy, respectively, which has attracted the attention of Creative Commons' guru Lawrence Lessig, who has petitioned the Republican and Democratic national committees to allow all debates to be freely available. Although NBC owns the copyright on the video broadcast of last week's debate, journalists and commentators should be able to recycle some of it for analysis under fair use laws, especially considering the importance of a presidential debate to public discussion.

Luckily, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden's folks posted some clips on YouTube this morning. Here's another popular clip from irate former Sen. Mike Gravel from Alaska. Just don't circulate it or the bad men will come.