John Edwards courts crowds

CNN made history this weekend by becoming the first news network to remove all restrictions on upcoming presidential debate footage, reports NewTeeVee.

The move is a significant step in the context of running tensions between copyright owners and "media democratization." Democratic Candidate John Edwards led the charge with an ad campaign entitled We the People.

"We believe this is good for the country and good for the electoral process," stated CNN in a Press Advisory.

This frees bloggers and solo content creators from threats of DMCA regulators focused on removing the thousands of political debate clips already online.

The policy, backed by parent company Time Warner, will apply to all future presidential debates the network airs. Because it is a major news organization, other networks may follow suit in the wake of the 2008 elections.

The decision may also bring network television renewed political relevance as online presence become an ever-increasing priority for 2008 presidential candidates. MySpace for example, which houses the candidate profiles of Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, will host its own presidential primary on January 1 and 2, according to Adrants.