Al Jazeera Puts Egypt Coverage Under Creative Commons License

Egypt may be offline for the time being, but that hasn't stopped footage of the unrest in Cairo from finding its way onto cyberspace. The much-maligned Al Jazeera is one of the few news agencies with a heavy presence in the country. And they're releasing their coverage under a Creative Commons license.

Though the local government has shut down their offices and labelled their reporters "Traitors", the Arab news agency remains extremely active in-country. They only require an attribution to use any of their content. Other news agencies are even allowed to use it for commercial purposes.

Despite having almost sole access to the scoop of the year, Al Jazeera is opening their information up to as wide a spread of people as possible. Are they just dedicated journalists intent on getting the truth out? Or is this just a cunning plot to build goodwill in the Western world and maybe get picked up by a TV network?

I'd guess on a little bit of both. If you want to see crowds of angry people getting sprayed with fire hoses and doused with tear gas, click here. Prepare to feel furious, then triumphant as the crowds force the police back, then furious again as an armored vehicle starts running protesters over. The footage is disturbing, but at least this isn't going unreported.

[Via TechDirt]