Is anyone else kinda, sorta, maybe annoyed that Parliament Question Time video and audio is only available online for a week and then they replace it with the current week? Theres no place I can go to online at the moment and pull up the video of a specific debate or a specific date.

We do have the transcripts as provided to us by the Hansard, but they’re not the same as being able to see and hear the manner of the person asking/replying to questions or the arguments the exist outside what is recorded in the Hansard.

For example, there is no longer video of Ron Mark flipping the bird in parliament available on the web. There is no public video of Don Brash’s final speech or of John Key’s first speech as leader of the Opposition. There is has never been video of any of the debates made available for us to witness online either. All we get is question time.

I think I might start making my own repository of question time videos. Does anyone know what the legalities are of using/recording and then redistributing the Parliament broadcasts? Do TVNZ hold a copyright on those? Can I do it as long as I keep TVNZ’s “one” logo on there? Are they public domain or do I need to go down to Parliament and make my own videos?

Theres a lot that I think we, as citizens, never get the opportunity to look back upon. We might hear about something, but by the time we get a chance to follow up on it, the video may have already been taken off the web.

One thing that does bother me about TVNZ’s webcast of Parliament is that they’re solely in Windows Media format and, unlike the rest of their videos, never available in Flash format for those that don’t use Windows. Why is it they can easily convert their broadcasts to Flash, but not the Parliament videos? I can understand for the live stream, but what about the previous days?

I’m thinking I might change this. What do you think?

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