The ethics of copying Finno-Ugrian books

[Johanna Laakso]

>From László Fejes (writing from fejes.laszlo at gmail.com):


Dear Christopher!

I think you should contact the authors. It is possible that the
publisher has the rights to publish it in Russian but not in other
languages. (It is probable that they has not thinked of translation at
all.) I can imagine that they had nothing in a contract on the rights
in 1990.

I think you should not publish the book without a permission. If you
do not get permission or you are asked for an irreal amount of money,
you can translate the book and publish it without your name. You can
distribute it as a torrent, nobody can prove that it is your work. But
let it be the last possibility. (And you heard about it from someone
but not me. :-)

Thank you for your work and enjoy it!

László Fejes



On 22/02/2008, Christopher Culver <crculver at christopherculver.com> wrote:
> As a passionate student of the Mari language keen on helping others
>  learn it as well, I'm facing something of a moral dilemma.
>
>  The textbook _Marijskij jazyk dlja vsex_ (Marijskoe Knizhnoe
>  Izdatel'stvo, 1990) is an excellent textbook, one of the best I've
>  used for any language, and certainly by far the best for
>  Mari. However, it is long out of print and evidently it will never be
>  reissued. Plus, it is in Russian, and many people here in Helsinki and
>  elsewhere who are learning Mari cannot read Russian comfortably yet.
>
>  So, I think it would be a great idea to translate the book into
>  English and publish it on the web where all could make use of it. The
>  problem, however, is that it is copyright by Marijskoe knizhnoe
>  izdatel'stvo. Some Mari speakers have encouraged me just to go ahead
>  and translate it without contacting the publisher, because the
>  publisher would just assume I am a rich foreigner who can pay
>  abundantly for the rights. Plus, wouldn't there be political issues
>  with a foreigner paying some money to a Mari institution?
>
>  Perhaps other Finno-Ugrianists have faced this problem before? Advice
>  would be greatly appreciated.
>
>  Christopher Culver
>  Graduate student of Finno-Ugrian languages
>  University of Helsinki
>
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