BBC News Interactive has this month released nearly 80 online news reports from the archives.

The bulletins cover some iconic events of the past 50 years including the fall of the Berlin Wall, crowds ejecting soldiers from Beijing's Tiananmen Square and behind-the-scenes footage of the England team prior to their World Cup victory in 1966.

They are offered as The Open News Archive, part of a new kind of BBC service - in pilot stage - which is not just about enjoying BBC output but allowing the UK public to use it to create content of their own.

The clips have been made freely available under the terms of the recently-launched Creative Archive Licence.

The Creative Archive Licence allows people within the UK to watch, download and edit the clips and programming for non-commercial purposes.

People interested in being creative with BBC material will be free to download and mix that footage and use it as the fuel for their own creative endeavours.

The footage is now at bbc.co.uk/opennewsarchive.

To ensure that the material is available to as wide an audience, it will be made available in QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG1 and MP3 formats.

In releasing these reports, the BBC has now doubled the number of programme extracts it originally made available through an initial trial with Radio 1 Interactive.

Helen Boaden, Director, BBC News, says: "This trial is an important step in allowing us to share with our audiences the extraordinary news archive which the BBC has recorded over the years. We look forward to getting their reaction."

Paul Gerhardt, Project Director of the Creative Archive Licence Group, says: "The big news stories of the last three decades are the punctuation marks in the stories of our lives.

"The BBC's telling of those stories is part of our heritage, and now that the UK public have the chance to share and keep them we're keen to know how they will be used.

"Whatever you do, let us know – and help to shape the future of the Creative Archive."

The BBC will be releasing further content across other areas of bbc.co.uk over the coming months.

About the Creative Archive Licence

1. The Creative Archive Licence is managed by the BBC, the bfi, Channel 4 and the Open University and other members of the Creative Archive Licence Group to make their content (moving images, audio and stills) available for download under the terms of a single, shared user licence scheme. A full version of the Creative Archive Licence is available here.

2. You are welcome to share the creations you make with this content and, if you do so, please make sure you make them available under the (same) terms of the Creative Archive Licence, and that you acknowledge the BBC as the original creators of the material. The footage may not be used for campaigning or to defame others.

3. The Creative Archive Licence Group was launched on 13 April 2005, by founding members the BBC, the bfi, Channel 4 and the Open University. Membership is available to major national collections, broadcasters, and commercial organisations who wish to share content with the public on the same terms.

4. The BBC is currently piloting the release of content under the terms of the Creative Archive Licence over an 18 month period after which its Board of Governors will assess the service according to its public value.

5. The material is made freely available for those based within the UK for their own not-for-profit personal and/or not-for-profit educational use, and non-endorsement purposes. The rules in brief plus the full terms of the Creative Archive Licence are available on the Creative Archive Licence Group's site: http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk