Copyrights and the internet

[Mark Kaiser]

Jeffrey,

Putting an original work on the Net would certainly be a violation of
copyright.

I believe that translations in general need copyright clearance from the
holder of the copyright of the original work (though I'm less certain about
this), and so a translation published on the Net would also need copyright
clearance.

Now, whether someone will come after you is another question. The Web is
full of copyright infringements, of course. There would be greater risk if
your institution was involved in any way in the creation of the translation
or the publication of the web pages - there the pockets are much deeper.

Also, from what you describe, this would fail the fair use test on several
grounds:

a. Web page is open to general public and is not restricted to a group of
students at a public institution;
b. The entire work, and not a limited part thereof, is published.

Hope this helps,

Mark Kaiser
Berkeley Language Center


At 11:30 AM 2/24/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Seelangers,
>
>I'm interested if the posting of translations of text, especially your own
>translations, violates any copyright laws.  I know the topic is kind of
>"ify", but since translations on the net do exist I'm wondering if there is
>any legal procedures one must go through in order to post texts on a
>personal webpage, original or in translation.  Any info or advice would be
>greatly appreciated.
>
>Jeffrey S. Eagen
>Center for Slavic and East European Studies
>The Ohio State University