RE: [lists] Query about copyright on translations

["Janice T. Pilch" <pilch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a question for Edward Barrow regarding your reply on the query
raised by Jack Fritts. You write that "the copyright in the translation
belongs to the translator to begin with and lasts for the life of the
translator plus 70 years." If the translation were made before 1978, the
rules on this would be different, wouldn't they? A translation made and
published between 1923 and 1978 would be calculated on the basis of the
date of publication and probably be valid for 95 years from publication,
it seems to me. I also think this would be true whether the translation
were published in the U.S. or in Germany, for a work being protected in
the U.S. I often see general statements about life + 70, without reference
to older works. Can you kindly clarify? Thank you,

Janice Pilch

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Janice T. Pilch, Assistant Professor of Library Administration
Slavic and East European Technical Services Librarian
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Slavic and East European Library, 225 University Library
1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Tel. (217) 244-9399
E-mail: pilch@xxxxxxxx

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003, Edward Barrow wrote:

> On Monday, July 07, 2003 11:51 PM, Fritts, Jack [SMTP:JFritts@xxxxxxx]
> wrote:
> > One of my staff is working with a faculty member who wants to compile a
> > selection of excerpts of German literature from the public domain
> (covering
> > several centuries), accompanied by translations.  They've asked me if
> there
> > are any copyright issues regarding the translations.  Can anyone help me
> > with this one, please?
> >
>
> Translations are copyright works themselves; the copyright in the
> translation belongs to the translator to begin with and lasts for the life
> of the translator plus 70 years.
>
> Translation is an act restricted by copyright, so it requires the consent
> of the owner of the copyright in the original, but obviously not if the
> original has fallen out of copyright.
>
> If both original and translation are in copyright, reproduction etc.
> requires the consent of both author and translator. If the original is out
> of copyright and the translation remains in copyright, only the translat
> or's consent is required. If both are out of copyright, neither is
> required.
>
> Hypothetical question: while this is clearly the case for human
> translations, which are creative works, what is the position with BabelFish
> or other machine translations?
>
> Edward Barrow
> New Media Copyright Consultant
> http://www.copyweb.co.uk/
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