I wonder where material regulated by university ethics committees fits into this. I know that university ethics committees are rigorous about protocols that protect confidential material gathered for research purposes. Sometimes permission to carry out research is given only if interviews are kept very securely, accessible only to the researcher and perhaps (anonymously) to a supervisor and then destroyed after a certain period, once the work is published. And what about oral history projects that use the protocols of NOHANZ, also developed to protect the interviewee? For instance, I've undertaken interviews where we've agreed before the interview that I will destroy the interview once I've quoted any section of it that the interviewee agrees I may use and interviews where we've agreed that I will not quote from them even anonymously and that the interviews will be held under embargo at the National Library for years or decades (etc). And I can't distinguish between the various kinds of interview work I've done, whether for book or web or radio or film. I'm not a journalist, but I'm not into publishing in book form either, with the exception of chapters etc in books other people edit. Where my writing goes depends on the kind of audience I want at the time, and these days it's almost entirely online (which means that I'm about to stop writing chapters etc). Anyway, thanks for the fascinating discussion. Best of luck to all of us who like to listen to and record other people's stories.

@Islander—the full stop on the link!

Yes. I guess I'm just remembering 31.10.85, found a clipping a while ago & plan to blog it this week. From another lifetime. xx

@ Islander (Do I know you? Are we about to celebrate a quarter century?) Take off the full stop.

Is this the moment that ANZ's status in the world changes forever? Keep going back to this article, & feeling a bit sick: Lawyer condemns possible law change for Hobbit: http://tinyurl.com/27fguro.

Thanks Dean. Thanks Peter. Good to have those clarifications.

@ Dean Parker

I'm intrigued. How do you know this isn't true?