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  • An addendum to Rule 3 regarding fan-translated works of things such as Web Novels has been made. Please see here for details.
  • RIP @Silver Swallow
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Rule 3 Addendum - Translations of Others' Works

seeing_octarine said:
Suggesting people should go learn a whole different language just to read some shitty badly written fanfics is, uh, it's certainly something, that's for sure.
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You underestimates humanity's dumbass will to find itself to ruin.

We're gonna learn a new language just to find new waves of brainrots
 
seeing_octarine said:
Suggesting people should go learn a whole different language just to read some shitty badly written fanfics is, uh, it's certainly something, that's for sure.
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trashtaker said:
You underestimates humanity's dumbass will to find itself to ruin.

We're gonna learn a new language just to find new waves of brainrots
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Even for published original works, the overwhelming majority of people aren't going to go and learn Korean, Russian or whatever.

They'll just say "fuck it, too much work" and leave it.
Retigh said:
Unless you can contact the current holder of the rights, you're SOL.
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What a stupid outcome. Copyright was a disastrous piece of idiocy.
 
Thatonesungod said:
Get permission from the author.
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SChase said:
but could be somewhat assholish if there is no permission given.
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Is it really? I mean it's certainly a good form, but I doubt any of them asked permission from the original authors before writing their fanfics.
Khalderas said:
this is a forum after all, meant for interaction both between readers and the, translations have very little of that.
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That's actually a good point.
 
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Even if I enjoyed some translations I totally understand this move.

Even besides the legitimate legal concerns, this is a forum after all, meant for interaction both between readers and the, translations have very little of that.
 
imffqq said:
Is it really? I mean it's certainly a good form, but I doubt any of them asked permission from the original authors before writing their fanfics.
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The very notion of needing to ask permission to retell a story or alter it is just utterly bizarre.

(As with many nonsensical laws, it was born of monopoly protection.)
 
I'm glad to see it. The increasing number of these has been twigging my wariness towards liability issues, as well as my plagiarism sense like crazy. We don't allow people to post other people's works that were already in English without having permission, why should we allow it just because it needed to be run through a machine translation program first? Because the original author is less likely to notice and get mad? Nuts to that!

It's a relief to just be rid of the problem once and for all.
 
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Vanbers said:
Novelupdates is a shitshow nowadays, fam.

Novelupdates doesn't even seem to link to sites hosting the works anymore, or give any actual links to translator sites. Or at least they changed their layout slightly from when I used it years ago because it's fucking worthless now.

I found out when I tried to look on Novelupdates for links to a story I read ages ago, and found that while it lists the translation group, and the number of chapters translated, it doesn't have links to jack shit anymore.
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I heard from a translator that does a series that its make it difficult for people to scrape translations for their AI voiceover on youtube, tiktok or other social media sites.

Also alot of translator sites are going down because they likely aren't paying for them or the licensor from the usa dmcaed them

Vanbers said:
Fucking webnovel ruined all ability to read shit, man. I refuse to use that site our of spite.
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yeah, chinese webnovel sites are a menace just as bad as korean kaokao webnovel host especially as the latter is one of the corporations that tried to take over kadokawa the other being tencent.
 
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imffqq said:
Is it really? I mean it's certainly a good form, but I doubt any of them asked permission from the original authors before writing their fanfics.
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There is a difference between fanfic and a repost, or even a translation. Fanfic is new material constructed on existing ideas. Reposting/translating is the same material. That difference is much more likely to cause problems if someone wants to cause a fuss.
 
Personally, I think the 'ask permission' thing is going to backfire for QQ since right now they're under the radar, but by asking for permission, the actual existence of QQ will become more well known, and get more people looking into things, and inevitably fucking around.

Might be overly paranoid, but eh, that's my two cents.

[template] said:
Case with Wuxiaworld is...they bought the rights for the english translations to the original authors. So if, say, someone posted one of said translations here on QQ (either the one made by Wuxiaworld or by themselves), then Wuxiaworld could send a take down notice, and they would legally be fully on their rights.
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I mean in terms of usability, the sites are worthless. I used to read plenty of xianxia on Wuxiaworld's site, but when I went back to reread an old favorite there, like half the chapters were 'locked' and needed a membership or some shit, it was crazy.

NovelUpdates isn't where you publish the translations, it is a site that tells you where you can find them (with or without permission from the author). And it is very, very common for some of those to be taken down since they are fan translations
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In Novelupdates case, it used to be that they didn't *host* the work, they *linked* to the work, or at least to the translator's website. Nowadays, they don't do either of those things.

I looked up a story, and despite all the info the page gave, it didn't link to the translator at all, meaning all the site is good for is titles of stories and the actual names of translation groups, and you just gotta hunt them down yourself. Massively reduced the value of the site for me tbh.

SChase said:
Fanfiction is generally non-profit works so there is no financial harm done, but could be somewhat assholish if there is no permission given.
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This makes sense, if it's more "we don't want translated fanfics unless you have permission', then that's more understandable. It's a dick move to host one without telling the author anyways, but when it's a fanfic I kind of don't mind as much if they didn't get permission, given there's effectively zero percent chance they'll ever translate the fanfic themselves, whereas with original works there's all kinds of wild shit that can happen, since fanfics are more or less verboten in terms of profiting off them.

imffqq said:
Is it really? I mean it's certainly a good form, but I doubt any of them asked permission from the original authors before writing their fanfics.
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Kinda my thoughts. Like, on one hand, dick move translating and hosting elsewhere without telling them, but on the other, like, they ain't gonna translate it themselves, and the people reading it are clearly people that were never going to find/read the work themselves, so I don't really mind from a moral standpoint.

Totally understandable if the rule is that you NEED the fanfic writer's okay, though.

The original work one I get, though. Webnovel are a bunch of absolute fucking cunts, and I know that form the old days of wuxiaworld and the shit webnovel pulled. If you're wanting to avoid their eye, then yeah, I get that.

JadeKaiser said:
I'm glad to see it. The increasing number of these has been twigging my wariness towards liability issues, as well as my plagiarism sense like crazy. We don't allow people to post other people's works that were already in English without having permission, why should we allow it just because it needed to be run through a machine translation program first?

It's a relief to just be rid of the problem once and for all.
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Original works, sure, but fanfics are already derivative and not something that people should be profiting heavily from, lest the almighty LAW be dragged into our incredibly niche hobby, which nobody wants.

In terms of translated original works, I might be a bit annoyed, but I 100% understand and can agree with the logic and idea there. But in terms of actual FANFICS, like, I really think that they should be okay.

mizerie said:
I heard from a translator that does a series that its make it difficult for people to scrape translations for their AI voiceover on youtube, tiktok or other social media sites.
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And, of course, as a result it's getting less people reading them because ain't nobody got time for fucking mobile game gems being needed for chapters.

yeah, chinese webnovel sites are a menace just as bad as korean kaokao webnovel host especially as the latter is one of the corporations that tried to take over kadokawa the other being tencent.
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They're a cancer, man. Like, the worst business practices, and generally just awful interactions.
 
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Justheguy said:
How do we confirm that we got the author's permission?
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Jason Wu said:
Social media apparently. I don't think you can show DMs
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Ultima just explained exactly how. Some sort of demonstrable message from the original writer/rights holder, saying "yes, you can translate/repost this"
ultima333 said:
Something such as a Social Media post/tweet, or a comment at the bottom of one of the chapters, or an author reply to the translator asking for consent.
Such is fine if it's in said foreign language as long as machine-translate can get the gist of it.

Ask the author "Hello, can I translate this into English for others to read?" for example.
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Vanbers said:
I looked up a story, and despite all the info the page gave, it didn't link to the translator at all, meaning all the site is good for is titles of stories and the actual names of translation groups, and you just gotta hunt them down yourself. Massively reduced the value of the site for me tbh.
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Oh, that's something they did later on. If you want to have a link to the chapter on NU, you need to be logged in...or at least it was that way last I checked, no idea if they now removed links completely
 
Vanbers said:
Personally, I think the 'ask permission' thing is going to backfire for QQ since right now they're under the radar, but by asking for permission, the actual existence of QQ will become more well known, and get more people looking into things, and inevitably fucking around.
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QQ is pretty much already (in?)famous as part of the Xenforo forum trinity. That ship has sailed a while ago, I think.
 
Vanbers said:
In Novelupdates case, it used to be that they didn't *host* the work, they *linked* to the work, or at least to the translator's website. Nowadays, they don't do either of those things.

I looked up a story, and despite all the info the page gave, it didn't link to the translator at all, meaning all the site is good for is titles of stories and the actual names of translation groups, and you just gotta hunt them down yourself. Massively reduced the value of the site for me tbh.
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I forgot to mention that you can see the links if you made an account but then its probably another layer of annoyance that you might dislike.
 
Thatonesungod said:
There is a difference between fanfic and a repost, or even a translation. Fanfic is new material constructed on existing ideas. Reposting/translating is the same material. That difference is much more likely to cause problems if someone wants to cause a fuss.
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No more than if say one of the copyright holders complains about fanfics with paid closed chapters. And yet there they are.
 
I don't really care much either way, just curious about translated fanfictions like a few others have asked.

Fanfiction itself is in a grey area legally and I've seen some lawyers via reddit and news sites that say it isn't transformative enough, and technically illegal. Just that authors don't 'normally' monetize it, with Patron also being a gray area since it's sort of a 'donation' site where they just happen to publish fanfiction.

So translating a foreign fanfiction should be fine since they can't legally make money off it. Just that most OG authors don't care enough to try to take down the massive infrastructure that fanfiction has online. Some even enjoy it, like Brandon Sanderson.
 
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