QI contract

dunno
but i am a programmer and i don't even own the works i have done so

 

Gotta love that beautifully done slave contract i guess , no other things to say on this subject .

P.S : all this conflict atleast keeps us entertained ://

 

And I actually considered working for QI one day...

 

youre right, that is the problem. and i agree that what they did was bad and dumb. im mostly just trying to respond to people bringing up other shit lol

so if you write a story with the potential to make profit and i take it, change a few things, and profit off of it, youll be completely fine with that?
pretty much everyone who does some type of work for a company doesnt own that piece of work, look at the guy above who said "dunno
but i am a programmer and i don't even own the works i have done so"
youre right about the incentive though, theres either no difference or a very tiny difference in the amount of pay a great translator and shit translater receives on qidian. but theres no one to check the quality as of yet, so not much can be done there unless someone with a degree decides to start working for qidian. and i fully agree that 7$ is shit pay for a high quality edit, especially when the people who cant make high quality edits are getting paid the same.

 

Nah, you should read noodletranslators post.
40$ per chapter, and 35$ for new novels

 

what does that have to do with anything i said?

 

"i fully agree that 7$ is shit pay for a high quality edit, especially when the people who cant make high quality edits are getting paid the same."

 

Posted this on the /r/TranslationStudies got this answer:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Translatio...ian_contract_such_a_big_exploitation_as_said/
''Let's say a chapter from your average Chinese web novel is 2000 words, divided by the $35-50 a chapter... That's a rate of $0.0175-0.025 per word, which is the lowest I've come across so far by a considerably large margin. Bravo Qidian.''

 

For a translator who translated a crapton of chapters for free, even without ads and paetron and donations, and can generally output more than 60k words per week......the USD$40 is really tempting.......

No complains about the appreciation in payrise though. -waves banner of 'TL salary must increase!'-

 

Some other dude already said it but once you get a standard paid for your work, your work is judged. And the price they pay is minuscule. Or how /u/ckrit said: ''I wouldn't be suprised they try to save money every step along the way by hiring cheap, inexperienced and unskilled people (read: poor suckers)''

 

Yep. They got people hypnotize by the large amount but putting it into perpective of how much words you need to translate that's pretty low rate if you ask me.

 

Are there any lawyers in here? That contract MIGHT be enforceable in China. But how enforceable in the US would it be? My thoughts are that the Judge would take one look at it, and laugh.

The two words I hear in my mind the most from this whole situation: International Incident.

Leaders will get involved, and putting aside Chinese leadership... Ours... Yeah... #ThisIsGonnaEndInTears

 

The only ugly thing about working like this is that, after webnovel really get famous(?). And Q start earning of it. Would the translators left literally with noting. While it fills Q pocket.

 

Here is the opinion of professional translator:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Translatio...ian_contract_such_a_big_exploitation_as_said/

 

The entire contract is essentially a glorified slave contract. You're giving up all your basic rights to anything so you can continue translating without the chance of being sued by them. If they're going to take full ownership of the copyright, block you from speaking poorly of them, require you to help them with public events which you are invited to in "good faith", and give them the right to use YOUR name, they should at least give you the most basic employee rights. They don't even give you that. They pay for nothing other than for the chapters, take all the rights that normal authors receive (yes, the copyrights in most cases DO belong to the authors and translators) and give nothing in return. If shit hits the fan, it's YOUR fault, they are completely not liable for anything.

A working contract is meant to be fair for both parties, not a document where people give away everything for nothing in return. If they plan on putting all those strict clauses into their contract then the translators should at least be considered "temporary employees" and are given some or the same benefits and protections that their company employees get.

 

I am sorry for everything I have thought of you before @noodletowntranslated now that I have opened by eyes to see the pit of hell I have realized I am still to naive and hope you won't hold any grudges on people as low as me *bows*

 

Even though they don't really care about the contracts now, it doesn't mean that in the future, they won't reinforce it. Due to lack of translators, they can be lenient to you now but what about the future? The contract is there for a reason, precaution, that's why they have a contract in the first place. If Qidian aren't planning to use the contract, why even have contracts with those conditions in the first place?

Currently, they are lacking translators, of course they'll be nice to you and tolerate with your schedule even if you don't meet the criteria they ask for. Why again? Because they lack translators, keep the manpower they have now even if their translations are poor and in the future, do a purge or for popular novels, give them to better translators (disregarding the old). Now if that happens, will you have a say? No, not really because the contract you signed says that whatever you translated belongs to them and they can do whatever they want with it.

As for "very very few translators are getting compensated for their work." Like you said, some people are happy that they are getting paid for translating even if they aren't paid equally compare to translators from other countries. Some people might want more freedom and less conditions or limitations when they do their translations, after all the root of fan translations for many translators are for fun, thus not bound by contracts, more freedom. The origin of this web novel community was that someone read something interesting and decided to translate to share with others. Not all translators want monetary compensation for their work, they are happy translating in the website they set up, monetary compensation for some translators are just additional bonuses, depending on how many chapter(s) they translate per week, after all some translates just as a side hobby. To each and their own, not all translators thinks that Qidian is offering them a good deal, thus not all translators decided to go to Qidian.

In the fact if Qidian does decide to take legal actions against a translator for breach of contract, have that translator thought of
1) do they have enough money to fly to China (since legal settlement is in China)?
2) do they have enough money to settle the whole court procedure?
3) do they know any lawyers in China?
4) do they know enough Chinese to understand court procedures and does not need a translator?
5) do they know about laws in China and their own rights in China?
6) do they have any connections in China? (since Qidian has many connections, and as many know, China is very well known for guanxi)
You might think, "oh, I'm very far away from them, no way they going to care about me", but if they want to settle, you'll have to settle, you are bound by the contract.

In terms of property claims. Sure Qidian does have the rights to their works but they do not have the rights to your translations. That's why they paid you for your translations and wrote on the contract that whatever you translated is theirs. If it is already theirs, why put the clause that whatever you translate is theirs?
In the manga translating community, there are groups that translates mangas that have donation as well. The manga is not theirs but they still translate it and share it with other people, even though they still receive donations. When the manga gets licensed or when they get asked for their translated works to get taken down by the manga publishing company that's planning to translate sell it, that's when the group stops. But that manga publishing company doesn't take their already translated chapters and use it without the group's permission.

Also, in the future, if Qidian plans to sell the hard copies and/or ebooks, would the translators get a chunk of that? Or because of this contract, they already sold their work, thus won't be getting any of that money.

 

man this stuff is insane

 

If there was no WW, no Ren. Then there would be no QI. Am I right?

 

actually no, you're not, but that was a good attempt at wit.