This is the sort of thing I love. The BBC releasing video and assets under a Creative Commons license. It's one of the reasons I'm more than happy to pay my TV License (which really should change it's name as the BBC is much, much more than TV these days).

R&DTV comes as an edited 5 minute programme and also as a longer version and an 'asset bundle' which contains everything that didn't make the edit.

Imagine a future where you could download the assets of a TV programme like 'Planet Earth', remix and re-edit it, add subtitles for other languages and recut sections to be used in schools.

We pay for it, why can't we be allowed to 'own' it?

It would also help prevent the terrible situation where knowledge that is 'out of print' suddenly becomes unavailable.

For example - my brother (a teacher who really should write a blog) has a teaching resource book called 'Science Investigations - pack 1' edited by Richard Gott and Ken Foulds. Collins educational have let it drift out of print, and so my brother can't get hold of packs 2 and 3.

This means that the children that my brother teaches don't have access to something that my brother assures me is an excellent teaching resource.

If it is out of print and it wasn't making enough money to keep in print - why not put it up on a website somewhere so that it can be downloaded? Archive.org give free hosting for such things, so it would cost nothing, but would let people keep that knowledge alive. Downloading from Collins would also put Collins in that person's mind and so would have a 'relationship' with the publisher.

This is just one reason why I make everything that I do available under a Creative Commons license. Including my second book, and should I every get around to writing it - book three.