Carl Malamud is working on opening video of U.S. Congressional committee meetings to the public. You may wonder, doesn’t C-Span do that already? Well, C-Span broadcasts via cable Congressional meetings, but with a C-Span copyright on them. And C-Span has taken to trying to enforce that copyright. This became news when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi started a blog, The Gavel, and posted some video with the C-Span copyright:

…last week, as it happens, C-Span did contact the speaker’s office to have it take down a different clip from her blog–one shot by C-Span’s cameras at a House Science and Technology Committee hearing on global warming where Pelosi testified, Daly said. (The blog has substituted material filmed by the committee’s cameras, he said.)

Which videos are protected? Lawmakers get a lesson After Nancy Pelosi was accused of "pirating" clips from C-Span, members of Congress were introduced to the complexities of copyright law. By Noam Cohen, The New York Times, Published: February 26, 2007, 6:41 AM PST

This isn’t the first time C-Span has asserted such copyright.