This puzzles me, like the case where a French teenager was arrested over publishing his own version of a translated Harry Potter book in French before the official French Harry Potter release date. He published it on a website only and wasn't selling it or anything, but I don't know if he lied that it was official or not.
Here's the bottom line, for example, If I translated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into French and uploaded it onto my website before the official release date of the French version, but I also mention to all readers that it is not an official version, let them view it for free, and write disclaimers that my 'version' of HP is unofficial, can I still be arrested even though I do not get money from letting people view my French Harry Potter?
2007-08-08 13:31:35 · 5 answers · asked by Marty 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
PS I don't plan to translate harry potter or any other books at all anyway. It's just wierd why should the french wait till October instead of getting their versions at the same time as the english ones were released - it sounds discriminative when one country get something first and maybe that's why the teenager did so.
2007-08-08 15:24:00 · update #1
It's nothing to do with if your making a profit. It's down to copyright protection. If someone can read a copy free on the net why bother buying it? Hence, you are damaging the industry by denying the official author the business.
2007-08-08 13:35:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The author owns the copyright on their book and they earn commission on all sales. When they sign a contract with a publisher it is for a certain distribution area only - ie England or USA. This is why it is not available in France until October as it was probably sold there at a later date. No one is allowed to copy a book in any language either in print or on the net as it does not belong to them!
2007-08-08 20:02:03 · answer #2 · answered by Writinglady 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why should the author of any novel bother ever writing again if people are going to eliminate their chances to make a living? By putting any novel not in the public domain online for free, you make it possible for people to get that novel without having to pay for it, and at the same time you are taking money out of the author's pockets before they can even get it.
Not all authors are as lucky as Rowling has been when it comes to earning money off of what they produce, so giving away their hard work for free is akin to the place where you might work telling you their gonna stop paying you but you're going to keep working for them for free. And their gonna sign you to a ten year contract that says you work exclusively for them, i.e. you can't take another job while working for them. If you try getting out of the contract you'll end up in prison. Ten years, no pay and a job you can't out of without going to prison. How would you afford to live? Yet people want to do basically that to an author, make their job pointless as a paying job.
2007-08-08 14:06:43 · answer #3 · answered by knight1192a 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have you ever heard of the copyright laws?Plagiarism?How many major companies have sued entities for doing exactly what you propose to do? Write your own material.Things that have illegally appeared on the net have made a bunch of lawyers very wealthy.
2007-08-08 13:52:31 · answer #4 · answered by david o 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
im not sure but if it is, it shouldn't be.I mean, its ok for a french person to read the English version and people are only going to spoil it for theFrench who havent read it.And really, if they decide to go on the site then its there problem
2007-08-08 17:15:37 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋