Resolved is translating chinese books legal?

Hi, I was wondering if I was actually doing something illegal? Currently, I am translating this book https://www.gongzicp.com/novel/index/id/14176 and I'm about to start translating the vip locked chapters. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I can't read chinese and I'm not the best at understanding terms and conditions and stuff like that. I just want to make sure that everything I'm doing is okay before I go any further. I live in New Zealand if that's relevant. Thank you <3

 

If the publisher found it, you might get milked dry.
But otherwise, no prob i guess

 

About as illegal as watching anime on my trusty viewing sites.

 

Oh no : (( Should I try to contact the author? I wanted to try when I first started but I wasn't sure if google translate would pull through and where I should do it

 

Unless the publisher found out and court you.
Maybe its okay.

 

Illegal? Yes, definitely. What makes you think it's probably not?

Technically, translating is not illegal, if it's for your own use. The moment you share it with your brother, your classmate, the dude at work or the hobo in the dumpster behind your house, it becomes illegal. In essence, translating things isn't illegal by itself. Sharing it without permission, is.

 

Nothing illegal about it, per se. It's when you start trying to distribute it that there may be issues.

Translating itself wouldn't be illegal unless Chinese suddenly became an elite language reserved for a select few, or they somehow perfected thought-reading technology (allowing p2p sharing of your private innermost thoughts)

 

So don't listen to solely my opinion but from I know you should always always credit the author as his/her work. Copyright laws in Chinese are pretty lax. However, I would reach out to the author and say "Hey I enjoy your work. I want to expand it ovrrseas by translating. Are you okay with me doing that? Can you give me your permission?" This is mainly what I see and gather.

 

Kinda grey area. It's as legal as posting cover songs without getting a mechanical license.

If you're not making money off of it, they are unlikely to come after you. The worst is likely that you'll be hit with a DMCA. (Well, the real worst is that they will try to take you to court, but it's less likely.)

 

This line of work is highly suspicious! But we translators must suffer through our internal moral conflicts and brave the dangers of being persecuted in order to supply the masses! It is not a job fit for the faint of heart! So you must ask yourself if you are truly willing to take up the torch!

 

If you are concerned about things like that it's generally best to go to the author beforehand.

Or you know just do it anyway.

 

All unauthorised fan translations are illegal. Why would you think otherwise? You're safer if you aren't asking for subscriptions. If you're profitting off your translation, then you have more to lose. Tbh though, if you can't even read Chinese, please make sure you let the author know so they can make an informed decision whether to assent or not.

 

All fan translations anime, manga, or novel are piracy. We've just gotten away with it for years because A) most of it isn't available here in the US and B) many of the license holders don't care and/or have the ability to actively go after english websites devoted to translations.

Things are getting rougher. The Japanese license holders are putting more effort into attacking translators despite making little to no effort to make things reasonably available in english. It's why you see web novels translated so much while actual light novels rarely get translated. As far as chinese novels go, as long as you avoid Qidian novels you're probably fine for the moment I haven't heard of any other chinese publisher actively going after translators.

 

thank you! i was trying my best to translate the author's weibo and it seems like the book is to be published. I'll post a message--if I can figure out how to--on their weibo asking for permission but if they say no i guess that's it.

 

Your best bet is going for something with relatively little popularity in China and the publishing company probably won't care or bother trying to do anything about it.

Oh, and something not published by Qidian for another layer of safety.

 

I think as long as you're translating freely availible content for no profit while properly crediting the author, it's sort of grey area. It might not be alright, but it's unlikely anyone will come after you for it. At most, you might get a slap on the wrist.
It's when you translate paid content and/or make money from it, when things can get serious.

But as a wise man once said, anything is legal, as long as you don't get caught.

 

There are so many novels like that on this site so don't worry, if they find out and ask you to stop which is unlikely, all you need to do is stop it immediately. Qidian just hires the translators if the novel is popular. Korean publisher mostly does not care about the translators either unless you contact them yourself. For jp, just pick wn version instead of ln.

 

In most cases, an author will sell or license their work to a publisher. That's especially true in this case if his work is being published. You'd need to go through his publisher. There's almost no chance a publisher would give you permission to translate the book and distribute it for free.

Your best bet is to just translate it without permission. If you get found out, you'll probably just get a Cease-and-Desist letter, DMCA notice, or your country's equivalent. In most of the western world, you can only be sued for the harm that you've caused the plaintiff. If you aren't making anything off of it, and if there's no official translation available, they can't sue you for much, if anything, other than to force you to take down your translation.

Also, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't live in your country. So, take any legal advice from me and just about everyone else on this forum with lots and lots of salt.

 

Legality is dependent on your locale, with availability to open-source information.

Translating content is not illegal. Especially if it's for personal use (yourself and no other person).

Distribution/Sale of protected translated content is illegal in most jurisdictions. (E.g. Publisher's, registered content for sale by owner, intellectual property, etc.)

Some jurisdictions/ locales dont have laws for these matters and most can operate with low risk (someone can still get in trouble, but the amount of actions taken against an individual is limited, because enforcement is an issue)

Right now, we are in a time/era where civil/legal actions against fan-translators & businesses translators are lax. (Just because this isnt a popular industry compared to other forms of media, like video or audio)

It's more or less, whether or not the author, copyright holder, publisher, organization wants to pursue an action against you.

The actions vary from monetary compensation to just a cease & desist.

Just know there is a risk to this endeavor.

 

How about all the reading apps that have translated Chinese novels eg. Hinovel, Fasynovel etc. They usually change the names of the characters to westernize it and also there is no reference to the original authors.