Translators intellectual property rights on the translations Thread poster: aozgur96
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aozgur96
Türkiye
Local time: 21:59
English to Turkish
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Hello folks,
I would like to know your opinions and experiences regarding the intellectual property rights or any other right of the translator vs the translation agency on the translated material.
To sum up, what I'm wondering is, can a translation agency put a clause in an agreement that withholds all rights belonging to the translation from the translator? I want to be able to have the source and translation material I've worked on so that I can build up my translation mem... See more Hello folks,
I would like to know your opinions and experiences regarding the intellectual property rights or any other right of the translator vs the translation agency on the translated material.
To sum up, what I'm wondering is, can a translation agency put a clause in an agreement that withholds all rights belonging to the translation from the translator? I want to be able to have the source and translation material I've worked on so that I can build up my translation memory and thus be able to refine my translations and workflow further down the line.
Now, I do realize that the laws of the state of interest would prevail, yet in my country I have yet to find any laws on the matter other than those for the translation of works of art. Your opinions would be much appreciated. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Adieu 
Ukrainian to English
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You have no IP rights on sold translations.
No one has had any trouble that I know of for using translation memory (correctly) though.
And translation in general isn't like an academic essay, a copy-pasted/TM match correct translation is a correct translation and not plagiarism.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 20:59
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Depends on the laws of your country | Oct 8, 2021 |
aozgur96 wrote:
Can a translation agency put a clause in an agreement that withholds all rights belonging to the translation from the translator?
They can and often do, but whether that clause is enforceable depends on which country is your resident country and what the business and copyright laws of your resident country is. You may have to figure out "where" the translation service is rendered, according to the laws of your country. And you have to figure out if your country's copyright laws allow you to sell or give away your copyright (as opposed to selling a license to the material). If the answer is "yes" (i.e. in your own country, you can legally transfer your copyright to someone else, and if the agency agreement says "you transfer copyright to us", then you lose your copyright when you deliver the translation.
Some might say that the copyright is only transferred when you get paid for the translation, but IMO the copyright is transferred even before you get paid. After all, if you buy something but you only have to pay 30 days later, then the thing that you buy is yours as soon as you buy it, long before you've transferred the money. Nor do I think you can use refusal to transfer copyright as a method of forcing the client to pay (though some translators do try that).
Adieu wrote:
You have no IP rights on sold translations.
This depends the laws of your country, and whether the agreement stipulates anything about it. In the absence of any agreement, the translator is the owner of the copyright of his translation, and what he sells the client is not copyright of the translation but a license to use the translation.
(In fact, this isn't 100% correct either: the client has no right to use your translation unless his use of your translation is in the agreement... but generally, in business translation, it is assumed that when a business commissions a translation, it comes with a license to use the translation.)
If your client is in the USA, he may believe that he gets the copyright if he puts in the agreement that the translation is "work for hire", but (a) whether US law or the translator's country's laws apply, depend on e.g. whether the translation service is considered having been rendered in the client's or in the translator's country (and the translator's country's laws would tell you which), and (b) one can't convert a translation into "work for hire" by simply calling it "work for hire" in the agreement.
[Edited at 2021-10-08 12:06 GMT]
| | | | | The translation is your intellectual property... | Oct 10, 2021 |
...unless you agree to transfer it to the customer. It's that simple.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 20:59
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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philgoddard wrote:
The translation is your intellectual property...
...unless you agree to transfer it to the customer. It's that simple.
And/or unless you are subject to a law that e.g. automatically transfers it and/ states that e.g. your employer automatically gets it. However, this usually does not apply to freelance translators.
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