News Dropping WSSTH + The real Kurazy

What is said above is the truth here. The idea that they pushed out a system that prioritizes the sites revenue and cuts off a form of translator revenue without contracts that would be applicable immediately to give the translators a way to replace the lost revenue stream seems extremely incompetent in execution and pathetic in terms of professionalism. It's sad when you consider other companies that use contracts and donation driven revenue systems are much better at replacing lost revenue streams when changing business models.

 

@AliceShiki
Contract breach? He is signed on to translate X chapters per year. He never stated that he wasn't up to finish up said chapters. An earlier statement included that the 880 chapters he translated was the minimum amount required for 3.5 years. That makes 240~ per year, 20 per month. The 20 mentioned afterwards he'd be more than willing to do at the same quality as usual, after they locked him out of the system he needs to use to work. A notice works both ways, they need to let him be able to complete his workload if they intend to keep him on for said notice duration. Locking him out of the system gives him a clear indication they do not want him to keep doing work for them.

He can proclaim that he is quitting however he likes, that isn't the same thing as breaching a contract. That would entail him refusing to do the work he was contracted for.

 

Thank you, but it's not like any of us is involved with the whole ordeal, so we can just look at it from an outsider perspective once everything is already said and done, so it's not really a fair perspective.

Doesn't help that I read Qidian threads mainly because I like to be informed about all those things, since I don't read a single novel of any of the WN translation companies that are linked on NU.

The breach is essentially that the OP did not warn them with 30 days in advance, the amount of work they did doesn't matter in that case.

 

No that is exactly what an advance warning is. I quit. That's it. No more is needed. We are parting, we have 30 days to work stuff out if you so require. The company needs to pay them for 30 more days if they get paid per time unit or less if both parties agree on a time table.
The 30 days start there, if there are contractual obligations that need to be fulfilled they need to be done. He is contracted to supply translations, in his opinion he did so per his contract. 50 of them for a 20 minimum and he was fine with doing 20 more. Said 20 more would put him on his current release rate. A release rate that is 350% of the required minimum.

If we can take all the statements from both sides at face value, he is being a perfect gentlemen.

 

@AliceShiki but that what PR team need to do. Protect the company interests but considering outside view.

From my point of view, the 30 days clause is a moot point. The company already "agree" on the termination. OP don't have any access anymore to QI as TL, QI already found replacement for the novel, OP give the glossary to QI.

If the HR have no issue and didn't demand OP to follow the 30 days agreement, why must the PR team bring it up?

 

Probably because it would paint them with the image of wronged, which is in general a good move PR-wise...

And considering how much hate they generally get, I don't blame them for trying to paint themselves as good guys whenever possible... Though I suppose it was a completely unnecessary remark. It should have been said in private, just like the OPs announcement of leaving.

 

To be safe, check carefully the contents of the contract that you signed with qidian and if you can see no problems and your contact with qidian is finished it should be okay to quit. If your contract is not yet finish you will be sued by qi or you will pay a big amount to qi for breach of contract and you will now be safe and qi cant sue you anymore cuz you paid them. If im not wrong you should inform qi 30 days before you quit and you will also have 30 days to be cleared for qi and you can now find another job(not applicable to you cuz you are already in ww.) If the mentioned above are not followed, qi will sue you and also ww but i think qi and ww are now on that track but you will also be included idk if ww will help you if qi will sue you or if ww will pay for the boc to make you all clear to qi. Just finish your contract to qi before quiting, to be safe. If your contract with qi was done then you quit.xD

 

Oh, I forgot, the obligatory meme:

 

While many people may consider the work that a translator does as valuable as an author's, translators still aren't authors. As an author, if you retain your copyrights, you are free to do whatever you want. As a translator, even if you retain your rights, you are always beholden to at least one other party, whether it be the English publisher, Chinese publisher, author, or whoever holds the license/copyright.

As a translator, your work will never be particularly valuable in the future. There's only one author and one novel, but there can be many translations of the same novel. The advantages of keeping your copyright as an author are not the same as the ones a translator gets. Of course it's always better to have your rights than not have it, and if what you value is your ability to say no, that's great. I'm just pointing out there's very little practical purpose in retaining the copyright of your translation when you sign WW's contract because negotiating for a possible e-book is about all you have. And if Coiling Dragon is any indication, you're in for a long wait, if ever. If you think prospects of an e-book are on the horizon, then retaining your rights is important. However, if you say no, either nothing happens, or if they care enough, they just hire another translator to do it. Neither cases are of practical benefit to you.

Now that I think about it, if the WW contract template that was posted is still true, you actually aren't ever allowed to move your translation as you please. Since it's a non-expiring exclusivity contract, that means that even if WW loses their publishing right, you still can't make use of your translation without their permission. Does it even matter when you you tell them not to use your translation after their license expires? No, because they shouldn't be using it the first place after their license expires. Also, since they have unrestricted usage of the translation on their site, they could technically edit and rework it however they want there.

I'm not disputing that translators' rights are important, but they certainly aren't as valuable as an author's rights. If a publisher can't work with you, they'll just hire someone else. If a publisher can't work with an author, there is no book. And when you sign a non-expiring exclusivity contract that gives unrestricted usage to a site, it's even less valuable. But I digress, if what you value is simply owning the translation (but not being able to freely make practical use of it), all the power to you.

It's very much possible for a novel to still have life several decades later and receive a new translation. It's very unlikely for a translation of a Chinese webnovel to still have "life" a decade later after a full translation is already out using the same translation. It is unlikely someone is going contact you a decade later to use your translation unless you were some authoritative source. If, and this is a very big if, someone decides to re-license a Chinese webnovel, they'll most likely use a fresh translation so they can offer a "new" product.