Forum: Author Hangout

Copyrite and translations

Nuff_Said 🚫

Today I occasionally stumbled upon rlfj's "A Fresh Start" translation into Russian. After some searching, I found a website (https://tl.rulate.ru) and its mirror with a bunch of people translating stories from this site and most likely a few others.
Worst is, some translators are charging money for reading. They also givs very little credit to authors, barely mentioning their name.
Of what I found:
rlfj: A Fresh Start (charged), Grim Reaper, Generations (charged).
aroslav: Swish!
Spacer X: Six times a day, Reasonable Bounds (charged)
Number 7: Second Chance (charged)
JRyter: 7 stories
NoMoshing: My Isekai Life in D&D
DDMarshall: Cathleen, Cindy and the Boys, Bff

Looks like there can be a lot more, but this was what I could find by checking "translators" lists in few minutes.
The website claims that it follows DMCA rules (https://tl.rulate.ru/blog/1319), but I have no idea how serious this claim is: it looks like total piracy translators haven.

I don't know who of the authors was asked for permission for translation and posting on other sites, but I felt obliged to give this fair warning.

Replies: Grey Wolf Remus2

Grey Wolf 🚫

@Nuff_Said

Thanks - mine's in there. Only the first eleven chapters, though, and it looks like they started, then stopped. I received a bunch of nagging emails asking me for permission way back then and refused, which probably caused them to lose interest in continuing to translate (on the theory that they either didn't write the other authors or got a more noncommittal reply that they could claim was a 'yes').

Ratings were decent there, at least.

I can read just a tiny bit of Russian. It would be interesting to try practicing by reading my own work :)

I should probably send a DMCA notice, now that I'm actually aware of it existing. On the other hand, I'm wondering if it's one of those 'gotchas' where, somehow, contacting them is worse than ignoring them (e.g. debt collectors, where the rules about contact can be particularly perverse).

Replies: Dicrostonyx

Dicrostonyx 🚫

@Grey Wolf

My (very limited) understanding is that the gotcha goes in the other direction. The fact that they contacted you then stopped posting shows that they know that they needed permission and they can't claim ignorance. The fact that they left any elements posted shows that they wilfully posted without having permission. That's a serious issue.

However, you'd probably want to talk to a copyright lawyer. They can draft a cease and desist letter if necessary, or tell you how to go about it, but more importantly they can advise you as to whether you should bother.

Many lawyers will do short phone consultations cheap or free. So before you call, consider what you're going to say. If you can describe the situation in a couple of sentences you may not need to actually book an appointment. Depends on the lawyer, obviously.

Remus2 🚫

@Nuff_Said

Unfortunately, outside the US, stealing others intellectual works is common place. China, Russia, and India are the worst offenders with several runner ups in the wings. When control over internet domains was ceded, it became the wild west from what little I understand of it.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/u-s-surrendering-control-internet/

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Remus2

When control over internet domains was ceded, it became the wild west from what little I understand of it.

That shit was happening long before the US ceded control over the primary TLDs (.com, .net, .gov). It should be noted that the US never controlled the national TLDs for other countries ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain#Latin_Character_ccTLDs ).

Replies: Remus2

Remus2 🚫

@Dominions Son

As it is now, without those controls,there is not a damn thing the US can do about the problem now.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Remus2

There was nothing the US could do about it before.

Again, the US never had any control over any of the national TLDs except for .us (which is the national tld for the United States).

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Forum: Author Hangout

Copyrite and translations

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