Gauging Interest - Mueller Report [LAUNCHED]

ktzn · Post by **ktzn** » March 22nd, 2019, 11:15 am

The Mueller Report is supposed to drop "any day" now and I'm wondering if this would be something people would find interesting to listen to, let alone read and pl. I know I am interested, but maybe I'm a nerd.

Not really sure if this is something Librivox can do in regards to copyright or government reports, but if we can, is there any interest? How quickly could we turn it around?

Input is welcomed. Thanks.

Post by **TriciaG** » March 22nd, 2019, 11:35 am

Here's a discussion of it and other current documents, from last June:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=70700

ktzn · Post by **ktzn** » March 22nd, 2019, 11:46 am

Ah, thanks Tricia. I didn't realize it would be so polarizing. I was just thinking that it would be useful for folks to educate themselves, no matter what their political persuasion. We don't know what it's going to contain -- could be nothing, could be something.

Thanks again.

Post by **TriciaG** » March 22nd, 2019, 12:05 pm

Yes, that's true - we don't know what will be in it. But chances are, in this political climate, there will be dynamite for someone.

ColleenMc · Post by **ColleenMc** » March 30th, 2019, 3:05 pm

I was the one who suggested it last year, and I still think it would be a good service to provide it. There are plenty of other controversial books in our collection. By recording it we would no more be endorsing a point of view than we would by recording, say, The Clansman, or Fanny Hill. Well, other than the point of view that any public domain work is fair game for audio recording.

And with the intense interest from all parts of the spectrum inside the US and a fair amount of curiosity elsewhere in the world, an audiobook version would be useful, and possibly essential for people who are unable read the text version for whatever reason.

Part of this is driven by my own interest in the report, and part because I found the Senate Watergate report we recorded last year to be FASCINATING and even as someone who had read books about it and studied that period as a history student, I learned a great deal. And I never would have sat down and read the thing on my own...

Anyway, depending on the size of the thing, as long as nothing specifically forbids recording it, I'm thinking of doing it as a solo. If not here, maybe on my own YouTube channel

Colleen

Post by **TriciaG** » March 30th, 2019, 3:08 pm

I think they said it was 300 pages. I don't know what spacing or font size.

ktzn · Post by **ktzn** » March 30th, 2019, 3:49 pm

Colleen, I agree with you entirely. I know some folks might find it polarizing, but I think it would be essential to have out there. So many people can't find the time to read this sort of thing, but might listen to it. There are a lot of "controversial" titles in the Librivox collection, and and many uncontroversial with language that today makes me cringe. I don't know -- if this is too controversial to record, what would be uncontroversial? No one would be endorsing a particular point of view, but rather simply making it available for people to make up their own minds.

In other words, I'm absolutely game to record if it's in the public domain. I did hear 300+ pages plus charts and bibliography, so not tiny, but manageable.

Post by **annise** » March 30th, 2019, 4:29 pm

Well I disagree completely, I think we should keep away from modern politics, they are just too polarising. The whole thing will be widely available people can get access if they want, it's not history yet.
WE've had a policy about posts to keep LV a friendly site, this breaks the policy I feel. And we are not a news broadcast, and we don't want anyone to treat us like one. Now personally I don't care about American politics particularly but that not why I think we should not stir this pot. Countries have different attitudes about criticism and some countries are quite prepared to block sites that they feel are critical of them, particularly if they are leaders of them. I want everyone to be able to listen to history, I don't want us blocked by countries I will not name. They can block the news sources instead.

Anne

Post by **chocoholic** » March 30th, 2019, 7:37 pm

Not everything published by the US Government is in the public domain. Don't assume anything, especially with documents that are likely to contain classified information or have contributions from independent contractors.
https://www.usa.gov/government-works (see the section on copyright exceptions)

DACSoft · Post by **DACSoft** » March 30th, 2019, 11:00 pm

ColleenMc wrote: ↑
March 30th, 2019, 3:05 pm
Anyway, depending on the size of the thing, as long as nothing specifically forbids recording it, I'm thinking of doing it as a solo. If not here, maybe on my own YouTube channel

I agree with the comments in your post. An audio version is simply another option for readers/listeners, who may have an interest, to have access to the information, in order to come to their own independent conclusions about a current or historical event. Of course, its public domain status will be a key factor for LV (and for PG, which I may pursue).

Personally, I use the following as my guide on recording for LV, which is contained on the About LibriVox page:

LibriVox Objective
To make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.

Please note: Our readers are free to choose the books they wish to record. LibriVox sees itself as a library of audiobooks. Because the books we read are in the public domain, our readers and listeners should be aware that many of them are very old, and may contain language or express notions that are antiquated at best, offending at worst.

FWIW,
Don

ktzn · Post by **ktzn** » March 31st, 2019, 9:04 am

Anne, I'm genuinely concerned about your worry over a certain nation not to be named blocking LB. Could you please clarify? Is this something we all need to be worried about?

Post by **TriciaG** » March 31st, 2019, 10:57 am

ktzn wrote: ↑
March 31st, 2019, 9:04 am
Anne, I'm genuinely concerned about your worry over a certain nation not to be named blocking LB. Could you please clarify? Is this something we all need to be worried about?

I'm not trying to read Anne's mind, but I'm assuming she means the country with which the President was accused of being in collusion could perhaps block its residents from accessing LV materials/site.

China already does this - not just our material, but other Western material, too. Here's a wiki page about it: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Help_for_Listeners_in_China

ColleenMc · Post by **ColleenMc** » March 31st, 2019, 11:18 am

Self-censoring because of fear of what other countries might ban is not a good road to start down. The burden should be on the censorious nations to do the work, not LV in fear of what they might object to.

Colleen

ej400 · Post by **ej400** » March 31st, 2019, 1:58 pm

I feel like this topic is crossing some very strict lines, and it's making me quite uncomfortable. I don't want to see my country ban librivox just because some people wanted read something that 1. isn't even PD, 2. it is something that could possibly cause conflict and 3. might not even be published for the public. It is a legal document, and it won't be PD for quite some time.

What's so important about reading this particular document anyway? Why should it be any different to read this, than another report that might have came out in 2008?

Post by **TriciaG** » March 31st, 2019, 2:10 pm

Elijah - No very strict LV lines are being crossed here, for the record.

The chances of the US banning LibriVox are slim to none. Have you ever heard of the US banning a website? I'm pretty sure Anne was NOT talking about the USA. See my post above.

I don't want to see my country ban librivox just because some people wanted read something that 1. isn't even PD, 2. it is something that could possibly cause conflict and 3. might not even be published for the public. It is a legal document, and it won't be PD for quite some time.

Points 1 and 3. It may be released into the PD. Government reports on the space shuttle Columbia accident, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, etc., are all PD and are all recorded for LV.

Point 2 is the biggest concern, IMO, but even that is a minimal one for me. We've got other controversial topics recorded here, and we've managed to stay civil. I wouldn't BC it myself, but I won't say that someone else couldn't do so if it's PD.

What's so important about reading this particular document anyway? Why should it be any different to read this, than another report that might have came out in 2008?

See other posts above for their reasons for wanting to record this.