Someone recently asked whether they could translate my articles on their blog, so I thought I’d go ahead and post my official translation policy, such as it is at this time. You may create and publish online translations of my work, provided that:
- You may not charge anyone for access to the translated article(s)
- Translated articles may not be republished in print, audio, or any other medium besides on-line text without my prior written permission.
- Each translation must prominently identify dirtSimple.org as the source and Phillip J. Eby as the author, and include a prominent link to the original version of the translated article
- You may not place any advertising or content, paid or otherwise, that is not from dirtSimple.org on the same page as a translated article. This means that you cannot post translations directly to a blog that contains non-dirtSimple articles, but you can create a separate page that’s a translation and then cite it in your blog, including a short excerpt if you wish.
- You must retain intact all links that were in the original article, including any Amazon associate referral links
- If a link points to another dirtSimple.org article that you’ve also translated, you may add a supplemental link like “(translation here)” to refer to the translated version, but you must still retain the original link as well. So if the original article has a link like “So as I said in the Multiple Self article, blah blah”, you might translate it as something like “En El Yo Múltiple (traducción aquí)”, with the second link pointing to your translated version, and the first one still pointing to the original English version at dirtSimple.org.
- You must post a comment to the original article containing a link to the translated version and enough English text for me to be able to tell it’s a translation link and not some kind of spam in a language I don’t understand. 🙂
Some of these restrictions are necessary because the articles here may eventually become part of a book, and I can’t sell any rights that have already been given away. Please note that I must reserve the right to change this policy at any time, and that I also reserve the right to require that a particular translation be deleted or modified for any reason in my sole discretion. Thank you for helping to bring this material to a wider audience.
(P.S. If these restrictions are a problem, remember that you can always write original articles – in whatever language – that discuss in your own way the ideas presented here. As such, I would appreciate appropriate credit and citation, but I am obviously not in a position to control the disposition of your original work, as would be the case with derivative works such as translations.)
OK, Philip, this is a joke post right?
Why can’t you just modify the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/) to allow for No Derivative Works except in teh case of direct language translations?
I mean honestly, this is NOT the type of post I’d expect from someone in the Open Source community.
BTW, according to Bloglines I have been “subscribed since March 6, 2005” and have read every post at least since then of yours.
“””OK, Philip, this is a joke post right?”””
No. And my name’s not Philip, either.
“””Why can’t you just modify the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/) to allow for No Derivative Works except in teh case of direct language translations?”””
Why would I want to?
“””this is NOT the type of post I’d expect from someone in the Open Source community.”””
You mean, a post giving permission for people to copy my work, as long as some reasonable licensing terms are met? Sounds like a normal, everyday occurrence to me.
Using Creative Commons simplifies things. Why do people use the GPL?
OK, I’ll ask another question. Under what terms may I use your work? I don’t care about translation. Are you going to write another post?
“””Using Creative Commons simplifies things.”””
I’d have had to find it, read it and edit it; that’s hardly a simplification. Since I know what I want already, it’s simpler to just write that out.
“””Under what terms may I use your work?”””
What work are you talking about?
Everything is pretty clear for me, besides that:
“You may not place any advertising or content, paid or otherwise, that is not from dirtSimple.org on the same page as a translated article. This means that you cannot post translations directly to a blog that contains non-dirtSimple articles, but you can create a separate page that’s a translation and then cite it in your blog, including a short excerpt if you wish.”
So, if I make a seperate page for the translation, do you want me to cut all the graphic design of my blog, all the sidebar links etc. ?
“””So, if I make a seperate page for the translation, do you want me to cut all the graphic design of my blog, all the sidebar links etc. ?”””
Yes. It *is* okay to credit yourself as the author of the translation and to have translations link back to your blog. I just don’t want my work to look as though it is a part of someone else’s site. Matching the color scheme and fonts of your blog is okay, though. (i.e. “content” is only meant to restrict the addition of photos, graphics, links, and text, not to restrict your choice of colors, fonts, and layout.)
Ok, now everything is clear to me, thanks for the detailed response.