Al-Jazeera Goes Creative Commons?

Yup. The AJ network has put up a ton of their raw footage from Gaza online for free for any and all to use as they see fit. The footage is from both the Arabic and English feeds and does not include any AJ commentary sans a brief written timeline of what the cameras are looking at. Unprecedented move, to say the least. And it is important to put this in perspective: AJ is the only intenational news network in Gaza with cameras rolling, i.e. they have a monopoly on these images. By offering them for free and encouraging citizens and journalists alike and mash-up and reuse as they see fit is a bold move and could be read a s a rebuttal to Israel's refusal to allow any journalists into the Gaza strip. Thoughts?

Oh -- as a follow up -- The Economist is reporting that it is precisely these types of images that AJ is now offering to anyone with a modem and a computer that is responsible for Israel "losing the propaganda war" in Gaza. It will be interesting to see if/how the blogosphere starts to use and mash-up these feeds in the coming days.