Just some questions i had...

Fan Boy Joined: 20 Oct 2002 Posts: 5

As a translater of some manga(very little amounts) i had always thought that any of my translations were illegal if i didn't have consent from he author or publishing company to do them. I realize that most companies don't care, especially if they havn't been liscenced in the states, cause it acts as free exposure. But at the same time, if the piece i was working on got liscenced and someone used my tranlations to go and do more releases without my permission, is that illegal on their part or did i just screw myself over by releasing these translations even after the project was stopped?

If anybody understands my reasoning or question and has an answer i'd be pleased to finally understand this. thanks

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2002 9:49 pm

Well translations are very sketcy business... there's lots of debate on them. But there are 2 things you need to remember, we're not translating a textbook from german into english and then selling it (which is clearly illegal) we are doing fanscans, non-profit (our first loophole) and translations of manga are useless without the manga. So you've got to remember, without the manga, they are basically useless, also incomplete. So translations of manga are literally owned by the translator, because he/she CREATED them, and no company can sue you for translating something thats incomplete and for non profit, that would just be absurd.

I meen, if i translated every 3rd page of a text book into english, and then posted it on the web, not only would the company think i was completely insane, but they'd probably just ignore it.

Fan Boy Joined: 20 Oct 2002 Posts: 5

Oh ok i get it.
now this whole business makes alot more sense to me.
thanks

wait
but to truely own the translations don't you also have to publish them or copyright or whatever?
i mean it's like a song you wrote and had performed and someone snatchd it up and pulished it, nothing you could do there right?
am i makin sense?

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2002 9:56 pm

I feel that as long as you created something from scratch u kinda "own" it, and it sorta belongs to you. But I agree that translations are a very grey zone matter. It the same with fan sites with pics and everything, nothing is really done legally, it just up to the copyright holders to decide if they want to take action against it. Usually they close an eye about it because it is a form of advertisment in a way. Cos if you translate or make a fansite of some series your promoting it for them for free.

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2002 9:58 pm

Yeah, basically, its something like that... but still, we're talking more about honesty and trust in the manga web community than anything else. But it is quite illegal for a company to use a fansubbers script at the same time... because if they do it without permission anything can be taken to court. Its all funny like that =P intelectual property is problematic

Street Musician Joined: 13 Oct 2002 Posts: 402

hmm. i was quite eager to start translating 'feng yun' (storm riders) what with chinese scans easily available on the net .but i found out its available (in english) at www.comicsone.com so i guess thats that then.

anyways, everyone should try reading feng yun its beautiful.

Fan Boy Joined: 20 Oct 2002 Posts: 5

k thanks for the input
it definatly cleared things up for me

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2002 2:15 pm

so very true...hmmm...i wonder if pll even care about this that much though...