It's fine, as long as you do not intend to take donations for reading it or otherwise make money out of reading translated works, I do not think it would be a problem. You might want to support the author though if the story gets officially translated and sold to the english readers.
It would be morally right to ask for permission. If it's CN though, don't feel too obligated. They got a lot of plagarism in their own country so it's no biggie.
If you can, contact the author before starting to translate. If they say no, then choose another novel. If they say yes, then start translating. If they don't reply, decide by yourself. If you can't contact them, decide by yourself. As I see it, there are two main legal problems possibly involved in JP translations. 1. Taking payment / donations to do it. 2. Translating a LN version which is likely to get you DMCAed due to it currently selling and the publishers paying more attention to shutting down other translations than the original authors. CN, well, we can't read CN so that's why we read translated, and if they aren't 'officially' translated which might happen with en.qidian later this year, the authors most likely won't see any benefits or deficits in it, because we wouldn't read pay to read it on qidian anyway, so it wouldn't actually help or do anything for them. Though there's atleast translators for one novel sending parts of the donations to the author as he updates the latest chapters, but they're uptodate. KR... is seriously a hassle .
@Nordic My point is this : If you are going to hold translators to such a standard, you should hold readers to the same standard. In business just because you do not see actual money doesn't mean money isn't being used After reading fan translations many don't go buy the book or pay to read the licensed version. This makes me wonder what will happen if Qidian gets DMCA from an American publisher for plagiarized content haha
I don't see why you should be obligated to ask. That's what licensing is for. When it gets licensed you stop. It's not about being polite or not. If they aren't releasing their content in the language you want to translate it to, then I don't see a problem. As Dragoniak said, the donations are for your translating,not be confused with reselling another's work.
What you're doing is producing a knockoff and selling it. Of course, knockoff translations aren't as bad as knockoff "Pokemon," but it's still a knockoff.
A knockoff of what though? A knockoff is "a copy or imitation, especially of an expensive product." If there is no existing translation, how can a fan translation be a knockoff of it? A translation does not copy or imitate the Chinese text. Unlike a fake watch and a real watch, I'd say a translation and the Chinese are quite distinguishable from each other.
The problem that weighs for me is not the money by himself (itself?), is the act of receiving directly this money by the hands of the addicted readers. It's more like a coercive and egotistical protection performed by me, I guess? Still, I see ads as a more respectful and passive way to adopt it, lol.
Personally I think that type of mindset can be dangerous I feel that if true fan translations like Baka Tsuki that are so large had leveraged their audience and got licenses problems like Yen Press would not have happened Being profitable is not evil, gratitude does not put food on the table If fans and translators really love the work, they should make it profitable for the author And we wonder why authors go on hiatus or drop novels... Piracy will not go away but if people claim to be noble, they should be noble to a T not half done
A person who want to knockoff "pokemon" without contacting the company may have just called it pocket monster, if they translated the literal meaning from japanese to english. While someone working with the "Pokemon Company" may call it for the correct name. Which do you prefer? If you're not in contact with the author, your translation will never 100% be in line with what the author meant to convey. Not everything is as simple as looking up a chinese english dictionary and plugging in the words. I seen too many translators making up their own names. A knockoff of the original work without being affiliated with the author.
I'm not disagreeing with the rest of your points, but the dictionary definition of knockoff is a copy or imitation of something. Translations do not imitate the Chinese writing or pretend to be it, therefore they cannot be knockoffs. If I wrote a story in Chinese and called it I Shall Seal the Heavens, trying to imitate it, that would be a knockoff. Something that does not pretend to be something else or copy it is not a knockoff.
Try arguing for that when you steal a famous chinese poem, translate into english, and claim it's yours. It doesn't work. Just because they're in different language doesn't mean it's not the same thing.
Okay, but are translators pretending they wrote the novels? No, therefore their translations are still not knockoffs.
They're not claiming they wrote the novel. They're claiming it's the novel, which is at best 90% true. You can't completely translate a famous poem without contacting the author on what they meant, in order for the meaning to not get lost.
So @222222 You are saying translations are adaptations? Well that is what they are,if things are done the way you are suggesting, translations would cost a fortune. Pay for the license Pay for translators Pay for the author to oversee the work Pay author royalties It is going to cost ridiculous amount of money
I thank you for all your replies. I will try to contact the author first and wait for maybe a week (will that be too long or too short?). Since it's a new project I am still planning to do. I appreciate your opinions.