# Strange publicity for WordReference?



## tsoapm

I guess this might come under "concerns about the forums" - has WR just been given some slightly ambiguous press?

"I started getting a bunch of alerts from this word reference forum online"
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/25/163653941/how-one-author-helped-a-translator-steal-his-book

I hope it's not out of order to post this here, but I gather that unwanted posts get deleted pretty quickly.


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## Cagey

This topic summary from the linked NPR radio story will be useful. In particular, the author found that the translator was posting questions on _WordReference_:


> Audie Cornish talks with author Peter Mountford, who discovered through a Google alert that his debut novel, _A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism_,  was being translated into Russian by a black market e-book publisher.  Rather than be offended, he started working with his Russian translator,  helping him to understand concepts like "white liberal guilt."



I don't see the story as ambiguous, but rather as a complimentary description of the forum and how it works. 

In the story, the author speaks respectfully of the efforts of forum members.  He describes an incident in which a mistake made by one contributor is corrected by another.  From my point of view, this is the forum at its best.  People do their best and give good answers, and if occasionally one contributor makes a mistake, someone else will catch it and correct it.  

I don't think the author or anyone else holds us responsible for the fact that we may occasionally be assisting with a pirated translation.


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## Roy776

Cagey said:


> I don't think the author or anyone else holds us responsible for the fact that we may occasionally be assisting with a pirated translation.



There is nothing we could do about that, anyway. We can't go about asking every user that posts a thread about their intentions. But I also think this article does no harm to the forum, but actually shows how useful and great it can be.


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## mkellogg

Thanks for your concern.  I thought it was a good article that highlighted some nice aspects of our forums.

I'm not too worried about this case in particular.  The author seems happy enough and the user didn't break any rules as far as I know.  Though the concept that the forums are being used for unauthorized translations does bother me!

Please understand that I do take seriously any complaints from copyright holders when they write me.  We generally resolve such problems very quickly.


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## Copyright

Here's an article in _The Atlantic _written by the author, Peter Mountford:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...y-book/309105/

Rather than the generic "this word reference forum" mentioned in the NPR article, the author Peter Mountford is professional enough to identify us accurately in his own piece in _The Atlantic_: "But in March, the alerts began pointing me to a message board on WordReference.com."


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## PaulQ

*


mkellogg said:



			The author seems happy enough and the user didn't break any rules as far as I know.
		
Click to expand...

Hmmm…*

*From the Rules*


> *http://forum.wordreference.com/faq.php?faq=faq_forum_rules_header#faq_rules_faq Rule 4. Respect intellectual property.*
> Always acknowledge the source.
> … All forms of inserted content that do not meet these conditions will be removed without exception.


Pirating is not “respecting intellectual property.”

The difficulty is knowing when it is being done. Unfortunately, there are several countries where this activity is rampant – Russia is one of them.


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## Tunalagatta

The forero _did_ acknowledge the source, though - hence the author got all those Google alerts and found out.

What the Russian from the "Rouge outfit" did wasn't ethical, but at least there was a happy ending, in this case. I bet the author himself has been getting a load more legitimate orders of his book since this story broke, too!


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## dreamlike

Well, as much as I agree with you Paul, it's worth keeping in mind that in this case the author didn't really resent the fact that his book was being translated into Russian by a pirate.


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## LilianaB

First of all, Dreamlike, some less experienced translators may not realize that they are working for a pirate-type of publisher. Secondly, anybody is really allowed to translate any book they want, as long as they don't publish it, or distribute it in any way, as an exercise, for example, or just for pleasure, you can translate anything you want. It is not really the responsiblity of Word Reference to check who is translating what and for what purpose.


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## dreamlike

First of all, Lil, the translator and the publisher was one and the same person in this case. Secondly, the translator did, in fact, publish a part of the book the moment he opened the thread on WR, asking for help. The author could call WR into account if he had felt like doing so, but he didn't, which is a good thing. Thumbs up for the author and his approach


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## LilianaB

If the translator is the same person as the publisher, then it is really wrong to try to publish the translation without the permission of the author. Are you sure they were the same people? You could do that, but then names and certain facts have to be removed so the text cannot be easily recognized -- this would be only if you were translating it for yourself, as some kind of exercise, not for publication purposes. Things like that happen a lot because many not very professional outsourcing companies don't care who needs the translation -- be it the author or a pirate, as long as they pay on time.


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## dreamlike

No, since the translator was doing a pirated translation I gathered that after he has finished translating the book he would publish it himself, but in fact he has been commissioned to translate the book for someone else, from Russian's black market. It's in the article:

_'And he responded, well, I'm translating it for a Russian publisher.'

_But it doesn't change a thing, we should be grateful to the author for being so... generous


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## LilianaB

Yes, this is wrong I think -- many writers would never do it -- hire a pirate translator, since it defies the rules of ethics. I think this person may not really be a professional writer, but rather someone who is publishing his first book, so he might not have been aware about the message he had sent.


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