When the disk drive from the National Archives arrived, the 28 minute video was on a 163 gigabyte file, about as good a video as you’re going to get. I posted that as well. I also used the uncompressed high-definition video file to pull out 276 still images which I posted to Flickr as copyright-free stock footage, which impressed the National Archive staff as a new and interesting use of the materials. I'm continuing to work with the National Archives, which has said they will be able to furnish me more of these reference prints they've digitized from film.
Many people think copyright is a cut-and-dried issue, a binary proposition in which the “owner” is wronged by making use of “their” content. My experience beating back false copyright assertions had taught me that many people claim content that is not theirs and it is important for their claims of ownership to be subjected to scrutiny, particularly where there is strong evidence that the work is a work of government.
The Accidental Congressional Video Archive
I actually backed into FedFlix. My initial video interest was in congressional hearings. When I worked for John Podesta, I spent a couple of years putting together a plan for what I called “Eye-Span,” a quest to get all congressional hearings online with broadcast-quality video. I sent reports to Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressing the point and had numerous meetings with Congressional staff.
In 2010, I talked the incoming Republican majority in Congress into letting me help them put congressional video online. Speaker John Boehner sent me a letter on his first day in office asking me to assist the House Oversight Committee to put their complete archive online. I was able to get them to send me hearings and transcripts immediately after the hearings ended and taught them how to not only post high-quality video in multiple places, but to add closed captioning for the hearing impaired. This meant we had a high-quality feed of all current hearings, a first in the House.
My agreement with the House also allowed me to have the archives of the House Oversight Committee, but when I went to the House Broadcast Studio and asked for their help they told me they were busy with more important things. I volunteered that perhaps I could copy the data, but they told me this was all in a professional format and I couldn’t possibly handle that. With a little bit of cajoling from me (and a phone call from the Committee Chairman) they said
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