Raŭmismo action
de qwertz, 5 de abril de 2011
Aportes: 28
Idioma: English
sudanglo (Mostrar perfil) 5 de abril de 2011 21:44:44
I seem to remember from a few years back that in India and China drugs (which were protected by patents recognised in the West) were freely copied and sold and low prices.
Don't we have any Esperantist contacts in countries where they regularly ignore copyright?
Anyway, can one really imagine a court case arising from an Esperanto translation with a print run of only 500 copies.
Should this arise, it might be very good publicity for Esperanto, and the order to pay damages could not reasonably be greater than the lost revenue - which on sales of 500 copies would be pretty small.
And how would any author find out that his or her book had been pirated in an Esperanto edition?
J.K. Rowling is I understand a very wealthy woman. I can't imagine why she would feel the need to take a percentage on the sale of only 500 copies of a translation. And why would she be interested in whether the translation was a good one or not.
erinja (Mostrar perfil) 5 de abril de 2011 22:22:04
There is a history of doing translations without permission in Esperanto (I am pretty sure that the Lord of the Rings series was translated without permission, and published in Russia).
However I wouldn't mess with Harry Potter. It seems to me that Rowling and her publishers are very litigious. I wouldn't dare take the chance.
I heard about a French teen arrested and hauled off to jail for posting his (her?) own French translation of one of the books to the internet, shortly after the book was published.
T0dd (Mostrar perfil) 5 de abril de 2011 22:41:54
sudanglo:I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the US, if a copyright holder lets a public infraction slide, that sets a precedent and compromises the case against the next violator. A copyright holder is expected to make a consistent effort to defend the copyright.
Anyway, can one really imagine a court case arising from an Esperanto translation with a print run of only 500 copies.
And why would she be interested in whether the translation was a good one or not.Good question. It could be a matter of artistic principle, since the book will still have her name on it. Or if she things Esperanto is a crock (more likely, in my view), it makes sense that she wouldn't want her work associated with it.
An unauthorized translation might indeed draw some publicity to Esperanto, if it ended up in court. It's hard to predict whether that kind of publicity would have a positive or negative effect.
3rdblade (Mostrar perfil) 5 de abril de 2011 23:16:08
qwertz (Mostrar perfil) 6 de abril de 2011 07:53:49
The core issue is, if a book or music track is digitized and public available, it will spread regardless of any DRM. That's what publishers are most afraid of#. And why music publishers are that high agressive against file sharing networks. Global recorded music sales fall almost $1.5bn amid increased piracy (Guardian)
I remember that Sweden had some kind of liberal private copyright agreements. Piracy law cuts internet traffic (BBC).
(#Even if there seems to be some change ongoing with Amazon and their Kindle E-book efforts.)
sudanglo (Mostrar perfil) 6 de abril de 2011 08:14:59
The comparison with Agatha Christie and the case of Murder on the Orient Express (original 1934, Esp. translation 1937) seems higly relevant since her books must have been at least as frequently translated as those of J. K. Rowling.
So the question is, who has the ultimate authority here to grant permission. Is it the author or a second party - agents, publishers etc.
3rdblade (Mostrar perfil) 6 de abril de 2011 08:47:04
sudanglo:So the question is, who has the ultimate authority here to grant permission. Is it the author or a second party - agents, publishers etc.My guess is that the contract between Rowling and her publisher is a licence for them to publish it exclusively for a number of years in all regions but North America, and grant permissions to other publishers who want to do foreign language editions. I'd say the foreign publisher would have to pay a fee to purchase the right to publish a translation, and because Harry Potter is so popular I'd say that fee would not be small. I reckon they'd also want a small percentage of the profits. For big markets like German that fee would be no problem for a publisher, sales would easily cover it. But I'd say that no Esperanto publisher has the money to pay it, and Bloomsbury are not in a position to 'bend the contract rules just this once'. Bloomsbury could publish it themselves, but it's probably too small-beans for them to have thought about much. They did publish the Latin version, though, and they are in the best position to publish the Esperanto one.
To answer your question, the publisher has bought the exclusive licence, so it's them who has the power to grant permissions. The author has a lot of sway and could possibly convince the publisher, though.
I am not basing this on much, but I think in 1937 publishers and companies in general were a bit ... nicer?
ceigered (Mostrar perfil) 6 de abril de 2011 10:32:11
Ultimately, it seems a decent business deal would be needed, and there doesn't seem to be anyone in Esperantujo with the ability to put forward one.
sudanglo (Mostrar perfil) 6 de abril de 2011 11:52:11
If you published a French translation this probably wouldn't increase sales of the Chinese edition.
However since there is nobody over the age of five who speaks only Esperanto, publishing in Esperanto might well result in extra sales in a national language edition. Esperantists might well buy a national language edition to compare.
T0dd (Mostrar perfil) 6 de abril de 2011 12:48:40
sudanglo:I agree 3rdBlade. It seems most unlikely that J.K. Rowling would not sanction a low volume Esperanto translation.I don't see what makes it unlikely. The fact that she was once an ESL teacher certainly doesn't necessarily point in that direction. It's not unlikely that she directs her publisher to deal only with publishers with established high-quality translation teams.
It's not exactly news to anyone here to point out that there are many, many people in the English-speaking world who view Esperanto either with disdain or outright hostility--people who simply "don't believe in it", for one reason or another. To such people, the very idea of translating work into Esperanto is about as appealing as translating it into Klingon, i.e., ridiculous. It's not about what we think; it's about what the rest of the world thinks. J.K. Rowling may be such a person, and her publisher and agent may be, too.
As erinja pointed out, the attempt has been made before, and no interest was expressed. There may be a very good reason for that, namely that she just wants no part of it.
The comparison with Agatha Christie and the case of Murder on the Orient Express (original 1934, Esp. translation 1937) seems higly relevant since her books must have been at least as frequently translated as those of J. K. Rowling.The 1930s were the time when Esperanto's reputation was probably at its peak. That might have had something to do with it. The world has changed a lot since then.