DIY 'Battlestar'
The SciFi network has a little gift for Battlestar Galactica fans. It's posted downloadable audio and video clips from the show and is running a contest for the best 4-minute, fan-made, BSG knockoff video. Amateur BSG directors are encouraged to mash up the SciFi clips with their own footage. Hopefully, hilarity will ensue.
I love the sounds of toasters in the morning
(Credit: SciFi Network)SciFi isn't providing any online video-editing option (maybe a deal with Adobe, for Remix, or with Yahoo, for JumpCut, would have been a good idea). But there's an upside to that: the BSG files are free and clear to download, not locked into a Web-based editor.
Some Digg members are bristling at the license restrictions, though. While no one seems to mind the requirement that all the videos end with a SciFi-provided promo for the TV show, the license for using the clips prohibits posting the videos on sharing sites such as YouTube. As has been pointed out, SciFi is thus depriving itself of a giant and free viral marketing opportunity. Or perhaps they're wary of another Chevy Tahoe PR disaster.
Perhaps to be sure that the videos stay on the proper and PG side of things, it looks like SciFi is reviewing submissions before posting them on the site. As of this writing, there are only two clips visible on the site, and at least one of them is a demo from SciFi.
Not into making your own videos? Grab the sound effects and music from the site and use them in place of your computer's existing audio alerts.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
