Some clarification: The contents of the letter written by Rabbi Wolhendler should not have been publicized by YWN as it was a private communication. There was no intent to accuse Joseph of stealing (which he did not do) – it was merely an explanation of why we feel we have th right to ask YWN to not post any further Q and A’s. The negative comments about Joseph are simply the work of people who don’t appreciate his posts, using this opportunity to malign an innocent person. The fact is that TorasAvigdor.org is run on a purely volunteer basis, and no profit is made at all. The website, as well as the daily Q&A (info@torasavigdor.org) and the weekly Parsha sheets, are distributed for free, and all costs are borne by donations and volunteers. It is a project that was created for the purpose of making the Rav’s words accessible. However the difficult work of transcribing from audio to print probably does create a legal and halachic copyright – to a certain extent. But we do not even attempt to enforce such rights because there is no monetary claim. We only are requesting that the Q and A’s not be published on a format that allows anybody to denegrate the words of the Rav. I understand that in this new world of no standard and no respect, anything goes, but some of us still retain a basic level of decency and understand that. And the wide range of comments that have been posted here make it abundantly clear why Rav Miller’s Q and A’s should not be publicized in a forum where every ignorant fellow can comment on equal footing with the Rav zatzal. It becomes, Rav Miller said this, but some am ha’aretz sitting in his basement thinks this.
That being said, the website and daily Q and A are open to th public, and they were created for that express purpose.
