Cliopatra is always worth reading, but Chris Bray's series of posts on the ethics of oral history must be hitting home with any historian who has ever turned on a recorders. (There's one for June 15: "
Moral Decency requires that I betray you", but there are earlier ones farther down.)
Boston College oral historians interviewed IRA members in great detail about their history of murder and violence on a promise of lifetime confidentiality. Now the police want a subpoena. Quite a few commentators say, sure, okay, no problem, hand it over.