On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 05:48:21 +0900, matt@gol.com (Matthew Endo) wrote:

>I have a question regarding translation work and copyright issues.
>
>For example, there is a technical manual copyrighted by the manufacturer
>of the item.  If you translate the English into Japanese, who owns the
>copyright of the Japanese version?
>
>What are the issues involved?

The copyright is the translator's but the copyright holder of the
original work has to authorize the use of the translation. So in
effect, both the permission of the original author and the translator
are needed in order to use a translation.

In the real world, however, a contract for the translation of a
technical manual will have some clause stating that copyright to the
translation is transferred to the payer upon delivery (if the
translator writes the contract, sometimes that will be upon payment
<g>).

So the fact that the translator has copyright to his or her
translation really only applies to literary translation. For instance,
if Mike sent his translation of "Father Fudger" to the publisher, they
could not turn around and sell his translation without his permission.
OTOH, Mike couldn't sell his translation without the permission of the
copyright holder of the original work.

This issue becomes important in Japan come tax time. It is actually to
your advantage tax-wise to *not* be the copyright holder, because if
your income from the translation is derived from royalties rather than
"for hire" work, you'll end up paying a lot more taxes on it.
Transferring copyright upon delivery/payment is enough to convince the
boys down at the tax office that you are in the latter group.

---
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom