By Steve Ranger, 3 January 2006 15:25
NEWS
The BBC is allowing internet users to download and edit news clips featuring some of the biggest events of the last 50 years.
The 80 bulletins cover events including the fall of the Berlin Wall, crowds ejecting soldiers from Beijing's Tiananmen Square and behind-the-scenes footage of the England team before their World Cup victory in 1966.
The clips have been made freely available under the terms of the Creative Archive Licence.
The licence allows people within the UK to watch, download and edit the clips and programming for non-commercial purposes.
People interested in "being creative" with BBC material will be free to download and mix that footage and "use it as the fuel for their own creative endeavours", the corporation said.
The footage is now at www.bbc.co.uk/opennewsarchive, and is available in QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG1 and MP3 formats.
BBC News director Helen Boaden said in a statement: "This trial is an important step in allowing us to share with our audiences the extraordinary news archive which the BBC has recorded over the years. We look forward to getting their reaction."
The BBC will be releasing further content across other areas of bbc.co.uk in the coming months.
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