My Physics department at school has a collection of old VHS cassettes, some dating back to the 1980s. I don’t want them to be lost forever, so I’ve started the process of digitising them.
I found an old VCR in a cupboard in the geography/geology department, got a SCART to HDMI adapter and a video capture card for my old laptop.
I need to do some maintenance on the VCR because it isn’t very reliable, but so far I’ve managed to digitise six VHS cassettes. Whether I can share them or not will depend on the copyright holder. I’ve done some digging, found the company that currently owns the intellectual property, and asked them for permission to share the videos. If they say yes, I’ll make them all publicly available.
In the meantime, here’s one video I can share. This fascinating video was from October 1986 (revised November 1986). Six months after the Chernobyl disaster, the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) in the UK released this video, highlighting the flaws in the Chernobyl reactor design, and elucidating the belief that the nuclear power stations in the UK were far safer.
The CEGB ceased operating in the 1990s as energy provision became privatised in the UK, and was formally dissolved in 2001. I believe the intellectual property was owned by the “Department of Information and Public Affairs”, so the copyright passed to The Crown. I believe it remains under Crown Copyright, which means it is the intellectual property of the King, held for the public benefit. As such, I believe it can be shared under the Open Government Licence, which allows me to “copy, publish, and distribute the information, adapt the information, and exploit the information commercially and non-commercially” as long as I attribute the source (which I have here), don’t mislead (which I don’t believe I am), and ensure it is accurate (it’s as good a copy as I could make). I’m not a lawyer, but I think this is okay. If you are the King and you are reading this and disagree with me sharing it, please do get in contact!
Communiqués from the King notwithstanding; enjoy!
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