I've been thinking a lot about rights recently: partly because it is central to some work we are doing on mobile TV and partly because publication of the book has been delayed as I seek permission for some longer than normal quotes. There is a lot more to say about this issue in the digital age, but Cory Doctorow praises the BBC here for their gung-ho approach to digital content and understanding that personal content provided by ordinary people is a blossoming of the media environment. Note his comments about the big Hollywood studios trying to grab control over the equipment we use to obtain and view digital content. Conversations I've had with content owners recently have opened my eyes to the degree that unrealistic thinking permeates these organisations. But is it greed or fear? And when we add our content to theirs, who then owns the rights?
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