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"ARSCLIST is an unmoderated mail reflector to facilitate the exchange of information on sound archives and promote communication among those interested in preserving, documenting, and making accessible the history of recorded sound.... "Topics appropriate for discussion may include discussion about recorded sound research, history, innovations, preservation, archiving, copyrights and access and announcements about ARSC activities and publications." From http://www.arsc-audio.org/arsclist.html I have attempted a more alliterative description of what it takes to get a sound recording into a collection or website: 1. Cataloging: knowing what's out there. Includes discographies and techniques of recording. 2. Collecting: Purchase, swapping, stealing, stealth recording, pirating, downloading, and other ways of getting physical or electronic copies of recordings. 3. Copyright: The various state, national, and international rights to copy and disputes about what is in the public domain. It is my understanding that only Edisons are universally recognized as being in the public domain everywhere. 4. Conversion: restoration of sound recordings, their reformatting into (mostly) digital forms, and making them available either as physical objects or on the web, free or otherwise. ------------- There are those on this list who are under the misapprehension that the only topic suitable for discussion on the ARSCLIST is the subpart of Conversion dealing with audio restoration. It is my hope that no effort will be made to formally narrow the scope of ARSCLIST to this one subarea. I would suggest instead that a separate list be created for this narrow purpose, as there is a great need for a list to discuss topics of concern to the entire ARSC community. Such a topic is the Library of Alexandria, of which I forwarded a superb New York Times article last week. Clearly, that the Library will come to encompass sound recordings, or otherwise participate with other institutions about sound recordings, is absolutely certain. We on this list should discuss a formal involvement of ARSC with the Library and get in on the ground floor. Secondly, the article mentioned several times legal and copyright issues. We should use our expertise in our special area of copyrights and dialog with those whose expertise is in parallel areas. Members of ARSC should attend conferences and meetings sponsored by the Library and its associated institutions. By doing so, when the time comes to reconsider and revise national laws and international treaties so as to facilitate the projects of the Library of Alexandria, we should make our special wishes known (such as preemption of State copyright law and common law court decisions and the forcing of recordings of little commercial value into the public domain). Developing friendships now will count for more than just sending in a brief at the last moment. Thirdly, the article discusses the funding of collecting, converting, and cataloging materials, three of my four Cs, it addition to the purchasing of copyrights. ARSC, or at least many of its members in their individual capacities, should use contacts with sources of funding as they develop to plea that some of this funding be devoted to sound recordings. We should also get a general feeling of what it costs to purchase a copyright, whether in fee simple or for storing on the web. Fourthly, the article named a great many institutions that are already affiliated with the Library, so that ARSC, as a body or as individual members, can get started. -------- I shall continue to post articles on copyrights and other subjects pertaining to sound recordings that should be of interest to the ARSC community generally, even though they may rarely concern audio restoration. (I will be not be forwarding articles for the forty days and forty nights of Lent, as is my annual wont.) I am sorry if these articles are of so little interest to some that they are driven from the list, though I rarely send more than one or two a day. But the interests of the wider ARSC community must take priority. Of course, if I have misquoted the ARSC webpage, or misunderstood what I did quote, I shall immediately apologize. Frank Forman