Hi all, this is just to let you all know that someone put the whole of Blavatsky's Collected Writings online at: Blavatsky's Collected Writings

Katinka,

Do you know this chap?

I do not know if it is exactly legal, but it is good to have all that Theosophy online.

Yes, I am concerned about the legality of the postings too.

He is Dutch, but probably a member (judging from his site) of the TS Pasadena. I don't know him personally, no.
I would say it's probably not legal - after all the website doesn't say 'with permission of Quest Publications', on the other hand - the articles themselves should be in the public domain by now, so only the format and pagination and Boris' notes are really owned by Quest.

Personally I feel that, legal or not, the TSA should not be prosecuting, because it is such a service. Especially once google indexes the whole thing and people can do an online search of Blavatsky's work!

After exchanging several emails, it seems to me that Ton went into this properly. He desciribed his proposed project to Quest and asked for their support. The response was they were "not interested". That response is not clear. It is not a prohibition to set up the site, nor is it permission - just indifference.

Since he is providing free advertising for the books & the CD-rom I do hope Quest & he will work out an agreement, so all the writings will stay online.

They are gone. That was quick!

~~~

"The HPB Collected Writings website has been removed from this site due to Quest not allowing this

For more informsation please contact me, see Ton den Hartog

Ton den Hartog

... can in no way be interpreted as authorizing you to place the Collected Writings on line. In fact the entire set is in print and is advertised both in our Catalogue and on the Quest Books website. Your act is clearly in violation of our copyrights and as a consequence the Collected Writings must be removed from your website immediately. I await confirmation that this action has been taken.

Thanks,

David H. Bland, Ed. D.
Business Manager, Quest Books"

Hi,

I'm a bit mixed about them being taken off line. On the one hand it would have been good to have most of Blavatsky's writings online in one place and searchable through google. On the other hand, as Ton was also planning on including the ES-drawings (also present in the third volume of the S.D.) it would have made Blavatsky's ES-material more easily accessible then ever before.

Personally I've always refrained from putting the whole collected writings online, because it feels like copyright infringement, even if technically these articles should be in the open domain by now - being from 1891 at the latest. In my Esoteric Studies Guide I refrained from putting more from the ES-material then the preliminary memoranda - because the secrecy clause should mean that this stuff is at least hard to find.

Though, for anybody who simply follows the Blavatsky trail it's not hard to find at all. The third volume of the Secret Doctrine (as published by Wheaton/Adyar) contains most of it, as edited by Besant, and Volume XII of the Collected Writings contains it all as well. There is also (so I found this summer in Wheaton) a 1920's or 1930's fascimile edition out there, published by the TS-Adyar - but that is very rare. Daniel Caldwell put the first of the ES-instructions online in scans (as pictures) on his Blavatsky Archives. So all in all, in this digital age it isn't hard to find these things.

KH,

It is difficult to balance the need to protect copyright on the on hand, and the need to spread the Theosophical teachings on the other hand, especially when these articles on now in the public domain. I admire your attempts at trying to be fair to everyone.

Thanks for the links to pages on your website. You have so much information! Please feel free to spotlight more areas of your webpage. Spotlighting all of the areas on your webpage, one by one, would be a big help. (I think it would take months or years to spotlight everything you have.)

Many people do not have time to sit down and search the web for Theosophical quotes on the web. And, there are the newbies, people on the internet who are stumbling across Theosophy for the first time. The easier it is to find articles on Theosophy, the better.

Re: copyright - What is copyright is the CW version of things. That is, Boris de Zirkoff's translations, notes, indexes and other scholarly apparatus. What is public domain are HPB's writings. So if one can find the old journals that her writings first appeared in, then feel free to reproduce them.

As for the Blavatsky ES material; Caldwell has nearly all of it in a recent book that has no copyright; I suppose because it is all photocopies of old public domain writings.

The Esoteric Papers of Madame Blavatsky

The site is now back!

Quest gave Ton permission to put the Collected Writings of Blavatsky back online. It is a conditional permission; within 24 hours of Quest expressing their desire wish to shut down the site, Ton must do so.

But at least, for now, most of all the 15 volumes are available online.

Wow. I guess they still want to feel in control - but also gave way to the feeling that spreading theosophy comes first. Great news.

As many know this site was in limbo after the death of Ton de Hartog. Now Katinka has gotten permission from Quest to put it up again, at her site. When she has time I am sure she will continue to correct the mistakes & fill in some missing text that was on the CD-rom that was used to build up the site.

I wonder if Adyar-Quest would give permission to add Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, which is also on that CD-rom; I do not think they are online anywhere yet.

Here is the direct link: http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/

Easy Links to HPB's Collected Writings

See:

http://collectedwritings.net

One of the advantages of this site address is that any time you want
to go to this collected writiings site, you need only type in your
browser

collectedwritings.net

and hit the enter key and voila you are there at:

http://collectedwritings.net

I use it all the time when I am doing research or giving talks about
online resources.

Access is also available at:

http://collectedwritings.info

and

http://collectedwritings.org

And of course at our main website Blavatsky Study Center / Blavatsky Archives at

http://blavatskyarchives.com
or
http://hpb.cc

in the second column we list THE COLLECTED WRITINGS ONLINE.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc