GeneH3

Problem is, even if someone has done it, they can't sell the transcription without violating copyright. On the other hand, every time I ask about making it available, whoever I ask says it's "Too much trouble". Surely someone could get those two parties together? Judith Judith, Thanks to the copyright lawyer for mentioning copyrights. For everyone's information, Dr. Branden gave the audio series, "The Basic Principles of Objectivism," to The Objectivist Center, including a mint condition set of the vinyls. We had the vinyls digitally remastered by a professional audio firm in New York City and sell them in CD form in The Objectivism Store. Recently we converted the series to MP3 and sell iPods bundled with the MP3 files. We still have some work to do with the audio quality. Dr. Branden has complained that a few of the lectures apparently are recorded too slowly, so they drag and make his voice sound deeper and slower than it really is. With around 20 discs, it will take some time to evaluate them to see which need to be reworked. That remains one of the projects that I will have to postpone until after I retire late this spring. As for transcription to text, I agree wholeheartedly that it should be done. We already have a program targeting selected audio classics for transcription and publication as books. Because we are using a few volunteers, it is going slowly. But as you can imagine, the 24 hours of audio represented by The Basic Principles of Objectivism is a daunting task. I am hoping that the audio-to-text computer programs improve enough in the next year so that we can us that technology to give us a jump start. We are developing our MP3 download capability at the Store. But being from the old school, I would like to see much of our summer seminar audio reduced to text. The written word has the permanence to survive the ages. We probably have 200 hours of lectures in our archives that are of sufficient quality and lend themselves to that medium. If anyone wants to work with us to accelerate the publication of a book of the lectures, we would welcome your participation. Gene Holloway Gene -- as I mentioned several posts ago, a transcription of BPO is underway, and two of the lectures have been completed as of this date. Without going into too much detail, I can certainly say that I am actively interested in working with whoever has the legal rights to publishing the lectures in ~printed~ form. My question is: granted that Nathaniel apparently granted TOC/TAS the right to market ~audio~ versions of the lectures, did he also extend to TOC/TAS the right to market a ~print~ version of the lectures? Was this made explicit, or just assumed? I would appreciate hearing back from you on this at your earliest convenience. And please feel free to call me at home tomorrow (Wednesday), if you like. I'll be around most of the day. (My phone number should be on file at TOC/TAS; I live in Orange, CA.) Best, Roger Bissell Roger, I checked into the copyright issues and Dr. Branden owns the basic copyright. TAS just has the audio distribution rights. Please let us know if you have any ideas about how we can support this valuable transcription effort. Regards, Gene

Problem is, even if someone has done it, they can't sell the transcription without violating copyright. On the other hand, every time I ask about making it available, whoever I ask says it's "Too much trouble". Surely someone could get those two parties together? Judith Judith, Thanks to the copyright lawyer for mentioning copyrights. For everyone's information, Dr. Branden gave the audio series, "The Basic Principles of Objectivism," to The Objectivist Center, including a mint condition set of the vinyls. We had the vinyls digitally remastered by a professional audio firm in New York City and sell them in CD form in The Objectivism Store. Recently we converted the series to MP3 and sell iPods bundled with the MP3 files. We still have some work to do with the audio quality. Dr. Branden has complained that a few of the lectures apparently are recorded too slowly, so they drag and make his voice sound deeper and slower than it really is. With around 20 discs, it will take some time to evaluate them to see which need to be reworked. That remains one of the projects that I will have to postpone until after I retire late this spring. As for transcription to text, I agree wholeheartedly that it should be done. We already have a program targeting selected audio classics for transcription and publication as books. Because we are using a few volunteers, it is going slowly. But as you can imagine, the 24 hours of audio represented by The Basic Principles of Objectivism is a daunting task. I am hoping that the audio-to-text computer programs improve enough in the next year so that we can us that technology to give us a jump start. We are developing our MP3 download capability at the Store. But being from the old school, I would like to see much of our summer seminar audio reduced to text. The written word has the permanence to survive the ages. We probably have 200 hours of lectures in our archives that are of sufficient quality and lend themselves to that medium. If anyone wants to work with us to accelerate the publication of a book of the lectures, we would welcome your participation. Gene Holloway