Is it a violation of trust to post digital recordings of SBL sessions online? I’m just wondering. Occasionally, some blogger will post mp3 files of some interesting session(s) on their blog for all to listen. I love having that access and have used it in the past myself. The thought occurred to me because I was thinking of how many sessions I would love to go to, but I can’t be in ten places at once. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had audio recordings of every session at SBL?” I thought to myself. But then, wait. What if I make some terribly embarrassing boo boo while giving a presentation or answering questions? Do I really want that immortalized on the all-knowing internets? Am I giving up any claim to privacy by giving a public presentation?

I think it may be the latter, but what do you think? Should there be some sort of ettiquette here? You must ask someone for a copy of their paper if it is in writing, so should you also ask a person if they mind if you publish their presentation in audio format online?

If I didn’t have this conundrum, I’d say, “SBL! You should go for this!! Record all sessions! Damn the costs.”

Update: Read Chris Heard’s excellent reply regarding intellectual property and copyright on this issue. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of that in the first place. Probably a good thing to keep in mind! Especially for what will certainly be the extensive coverage of my own presentation.