An Innovation I'd Like to See

Yesterday, I had what I thought might be a decent idea for a longer piece after reading up on the continuing campaign by the left to close Gitmo. In the process of reading, I'd gathered what I thought to be a good critical mass of information and had gotten a whiff of an interesting approach. All I needed to do was read Leonard Peikoff's lecture, "A Picture is Not an Argument" and I'd be set.

I'd done the research in my office because the cable was out at home. Thinking I had the essay in my bound set of The Intellectual Activist, I merrily drove home.

That's when I realized that the volume I was thinking of covered the wrong time period. Worse still, I had no idea of where my back issues were, and I could not recall whether I'd subscribed back in 1999 anyway. I looked everywhere I could, including the Internet, and came up empty.

I want the essay and plan to buy it. Here is a list of my choices.

• Audiotape, Ayn Rand Bookstore: $21.45
• Audio CDs, Ayn Rand Bookstore: $25.25
• In newsletter, single back issue of The Intellectual Activist: $4.00
• In newsletter, set of back issues, TIA (volume 13): $44.00
• In newsletter, set of back issues, TIA (1991-2001): $160.00
• In bound set, back issues, TIA (1979-2001): $199.00
  
• In digital format, CD of back issues, TIA (1979-1991): $48.00

My shipping options with the Ayn Rand Bookstore probably include some kind of next-day air via UPS. This is good, but since I am writing, I really don't want to have to go through an audio format to dig for quotes. TIA probably also has a next-day shipping option as well, but you have to all but purchase to find out.

For my money and purposes, the CD-format back issues of TIA look great but for one catch:

Due to digital licensing constraints, the CD-ROM does not include three articles by and an interview with Leonard Peikoff. Those articles are included in the printed bound volume.

Hmmm. I can't even buy this on-line and be sure of getting what I want! If I call and find this to be the case, my choices are down to: (a) a book I will have to think long and hard about purchasing, (b) a pamphlet I'll probably misplace, or (c) a whole bunch of pamphlets I can have fun keeping track of. Great.

But let's say the CD set had everything. There's still a problem. This was on a Sunday, and both stores are doubtless small operations. I didn't try, but I bet I would have gotten a phone message at either place informing me that the time to place orders is during normal business hours.

Furthermore, I am not sure when I'll have time to sit down and think about this topic at length again. The time I really wanted this article was yesterday. What I really would have liked is to be able to order the article electronically in PDF form, or otherwise viewed it online.

I am a little surprised that there is apparently only one way -- if that -- to purchase this lecture in electronic format, and even for that I'd have to wait for a package to be shipped to my home.

Given that many, if not most, students and adherents of Objectivism are college-aged or in academia, and so strapped for cash (And time -- see also the comments.) for Objectivist publications, it would seem to me that selling articles, lectures, and even book chapters online would significantly improve the availability of lots of Objectivist material by reducing the expense of these materials in terms of money and delivery time. It might even improve sales of some of the bound journals, anthologies, and books. I, for example, am already familiar with TIA and so am predisposed to buy the CD collection at the end of the above list. But suppose I weren't. If I could first read several articles at a dollar or two a pop, I might decide to buy the set later on.

I see that some Objectivist publications, like TIA, The Objective Standard, and the now-defunct Axiomatic do (or did) offer electronic subscriptions or access to back issues.

The question is: Why only them?

-- CAV