Theos-Talk Archives (April 2011 Message tt00186)

There's a much easier way, of course. If these commentaries are indeed by Blavatsky's hand, since she's been dead more than 75 years, the text is copyright free.

So anybody could make a pdf file of her text and distribute it freely.

I gather from your reply that the Theosophy company (apt name, that: a company instead of a society) owns the originals, so indeed they could make a pdf file for free.

And indeed it paints the sorry state of affairs theosophy is in, with no centralised holding or library, and silence on all fronts (I was shocked to read about the alleged Einstein SD copy not in Adyar - so where is it?, or the uncertain provenance of the original South-America map). It would be good if someone would centrailse all the important documents and digitise these and put these on the web for free.

In many cases these authors are long gone and there's no copyright.

Sincere regards,

Theo

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, MKR <mkr777@...> wrote:
>
> The book cost 59 Euros which converts to US$87.52 plus about $10 shipping.
> Most poor theosophists cannot afford it at this price.
> 
> If HPB was looking from wherever she is she will be shedding tears for such
> profiteering from her work and the stenographic transcription she paid for
> from personal funds.
> 
> While we talk about philanthropy and altruism, the reality is capitalism
> prevails and many theosophists who are well off or got free copies do not
> care about the price since it does not affect them. There was even a comment
> in another forum that priceless theosophical knowledge should not be made
> cheap. Soon you may see the book selling at $500 like what happened to
> Hodson's Diary. Only fatcats can afford.
> 
> I had communicated with Theosophy Company in the USA which owns the
> originals about making a pdf copy available for free since pdf file was
> available for a few days for download on Internet and many downloaded. The
> genie is out of the bottle and cannot be put back. A hungry theosophist will
> be able to find it in cyberspace.
> 
> I understand that many well known leaders have received free complimentary
> copies and hence they have no clue to the cost also thus not sensitive to
> the need to make it affordable to the run of the mill theosophist. None of
> the leaders has come out and openly criticized about the policy of pricey
> books.
> 
> They are all, it looks, out of touch with the ordinary members who work full
> time and make a living on a month to month. With this kind of attitude and
> feeling for the needs of theosophists, is it any surprise that the
> membership of TS in American has taken a nose dive from 8,000 in 1920s to
> about 3,500 today.
> 
> MKR
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 11:28 AM, M. Sufilight <global-theosophy@...
> > wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Dear friends
> >
> > My views are:
> >
> > Daniel Caldwell wrote on another forum about the TRANSACTIONS OF THE
> > BLAVATSKY LODGE:
> > "But at last, as of August 14. 2010 the interested student of Theosophy as
> > well as any interested member of the general public can now read this
> > remarkable work.
> >
> > You can click on the link below to order directly from the
> > publisher/webshop in the Netherlands:
> > http://webshop.blavatskyhouse.org/index.php?o=title&p=S [Scroll down to
> > 3rd listed title.]"
> >
> > - - -
> >
> > See also:
> > Secret Doctrine Commentaries:
> > The Unpublished 1889 Instructions by H.P. Blavatsky
> > Order directly from:
> > The Webshop of the Blavatsky House
> > Blavatsky House
> > De Ruyterstraat 74
> > 2518 AV The Hague
> > The Netherlands
> > http://blavatskyarchives.com/secret_doctrine_commentariesunpub.htm
> >
> > And this with - only - 10 of the meetings:
> > http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sdcommnt/sdc-hp.htm
> >
> > - - -
> >
> > I will ask, do you Daniel or anyone else have anything new to offer on when
> > - all - of these papers will go public online?
> >
> > With what moral right do anyone have to earn money on other "physically
> > departed" persons facsimiles or papers?
> >
> > M. Sufilight
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>