[Corpora-List] Spoken corpora - permission issues

[Lou Burnard]

There's no doubt that knowing one is being recorded affects what one
says -- but so do many many other factors, such as the person one is
talking to, the time of day, what one had for breakfast and so on. The
BNC spoken part is full of evidence to refute the implied concern that
such knowledge makes the recordings thereby inauthentic or
linguistically uninteresting.

However, this point seems somewhat removed from the ethical and legal
issues which are being discussed in this thread. For those with access
to the French language, I warmly recommend reading the draft "Guide to
Good Practice" announced here a couple of days ago:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/dglf/Guide_Corpus_Oraux_2005.pdf

Lou




Ramesh Krishnamurthy wrote:
> Hi Jean
>
>> Beyond legal aspects, there are also ethics issues. Even if some
>> countries allow this (which I am not sure), do we want to record
>> people without their knowing (even on trivial matters) ?
>
>
> But if people know beforehand that they are going to be recorded, might
> this not alter
> what they say and their way of saying it?
>
> Surely asking their permission afterwards - after they have listened to
> the recording, if they
> are worried - should not be rejected as a possible ethically-sound policy?
>
> After all, CCTV operates in many public spaces without asking anyone's
> permission beforehand....
>
> Best
> Ramesh
>
> At 8:45 am +0200 12/5/05, Jean Veronis wrote:
>
>> Cameron Smart a écrit :
>>
>>> participants aren't necessarily aware of the recording taking place.
>>> Several
>>> people struck a very cautionary note, one even saying that, in the UK at
>>> least, these types of corpora might be a thing of the past unless I
>>> went and
>>> got explicit permission not only from the volunteer but every other
>>> person
>>> who was recorded as well.
>>>
>>>
>> The law may be different in different countries. In France the
>> situation is clear, you cannot record, and worse yet re-distribute
>> anybody's voice and/or transcribed speech without explicit
>> authorisation, even if anonymity is guaranteed.
>>
>> Beyond legal aspects, there are also ethics issues. Even if some
>> countries allow this (which I am not sure), do we want to record
>> people without their knowing (even on trivial matters) ?
>>
>> --jv
>>  http://aixtal.blogspot.com
>
>
>