Danny O'Brien explaining the BBC's announcement that it would make its archives available for free, public use: "The BBC's job isn't to make money out of ingenious intellectual property arrangements, or barging its way to take a share of a DRM-restricted viewing pot. Despite how it looks sometimes, the BBC isn't just another Fox or Warner Bros. The BBC's job - or part of it - is to distribute knowledge. " What a concept. And the fact that it seems a refreshing concept shows just how poorly other media sources are serving the public interest. PBS, the closest analog to the BBC we have in the United States, does a nice job at it, but the for-profit media companies are moving in the opposite direction. Surely even a for profit media venture would be well-served by also serving the public interest and the public domain. News has such a short shelf life. What does a company lose by giving its reports over to the public domain once they've lost their immediacy?