Internet blogs are rich sources of information for translators and interpreters. They allow users to post questions, exchange ideas, network, and read news Blog Trekker Some Thoughts On and commentary on a specific subject. The topics featured in this column are actual blog postings File-Sharing Sites and concerning issues pertinent to your colleagues in the field today. For more blog listings, visit Copyright Violations www.atanet.org/careers/blog_trekker.php.

(Posted by Corinne McKay on her one of my books on Slideshare. Yep, tion, you are taking money from an blog, Thoughts on Translation, http:// there it was, including my copyright individual who buys groceries and thoughtsontranslation.com.) notice, which appears on the first page pays the mortgage with that of the book. To Slideshare’s credit, money. It is not the new media I am a big believer in sharing they removed the book immediately model: it is theft. information. For example, over the when I notified them, but presumably past five years, I have written over they are not planning to reimburse me 4. If you want free information, there 400 posts that are available on my for the 1,333 times that the book had is lots of it out there. Go crazy with blog for free. I have found countless already been viewed. A few years ago, it. If you find works that are solutions to my own questions on someone posted one of my books on licensed under terms such as the other people’s blogs, also for free. Scribd with similar results. It was GNU General Public License However, I think that there is a place taken down after someone alerted me, (GNU GPL), you can even sell for copyrighted work as well. When but it had already been viewed over a them, as long as you license them applied correctly, copyrights allow thousand times. under the original terms. But do authors and content creators to earn a A few thoughts here: not steal copyrighted stuff and living and to keep on writing and cre- think that you are doing something ating because of the income that their 1. I see that these types of sites have noble by posting it online for free. copyrighted work generates. legitimate uses, but it disturbs me If authors wanted their books to be File-sharing sites like Scribd and that they cannot take the minimal freely available, they would not Slideshare have a complicated rela- amount of time it would require to have to look hard for a way to tionship with copyright law. (There are prevent these very flagrant copy- make it happen. other file sharing sites; I am just using right violations. Posting someone these as examples because I have else’s entire book is not a grey area: Just for fun (!), let’s put some num- found my copyrighted work on them.) my copyright notice was on the first bers on this situation. The retail value In one sense, these types of sites are a page of the file on Slideshare. of 1,333 copies of my book is great way to get your own work out $26,646; certainly a decent chunk of there; put up an interesting presenta- 2. It disturbs me that translators would money by anyone’s standards. But of tion and tons of people might find it. It do this to each other. I know the course I do not earn the retail value in might go viral and you might get a username of the person who posted royalties, nor would all of those 1,333 book deal out of it. But, at least in my my book, and it is a translator. people have actually bought a legiti- experience, these sites do essentially mate copy of the book. My royalties nothing to prevent people from posting 3. Violating someone’s copyright is amount to between $3.50 and $10.00 other people’s copyrighted work. stealing. That is all there is to it. per copy, depending on where the Case in point: this morning I got an Especially when you post an inde- person buys the book. And let’s say e-mail from a kind colleague who let pendent author’s book, you are not that only 10% of those people would me know that someone had posted taking money from a huge corpora- have actually purchased the book, so I would have sold 133 copies. If we take an average royalty of $5.00 per copy, that is $665. So, dear copyright Follow Us infringer, if you are reading this and you want to make things right, I would say that an appropriate restitu- tion would be approximately that amount. And Slideshare, if you want to make things right, start at least min- LinkedIn imally vetting the uploads on your site http://tinyurl.com/38xqgsm www.atanet.org/linkedin.php http:// twitter.com/atanet for copyright violations.

28 The ATA Chronicle n August 2013