Hiii guys(≧∀≦) I have a question and I hope you can help me. You all probably know the translated novels and Comics from Webnovel, right? So my question is if they are legally translated. I mean, are the authors who wrote the books ok with this? Is this whole translating thing in the gray area or completely forbidden ? Please help me because it is very important to me. ♡-(´ε｀ )
Are the translated novels legal?
lookingxfor the official translations from webnovel are because they've received legal permission to translate. any/all fan translations are not, under copyright laws. they do not have specific permission. there's no gray area, it's rather straightforward/black & white!
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yaoyueyi thank youu (з)-♡ but with The official translations you mean the books that are marked as translated, right? Because there are books which are marked as originals and translated. So if I understood correctly, the translated books and comics on webnovel are legal?
lookingxfor Yes, Webnovel has the right to translate the books. All books that are translated have to be checked with a Copyrights department to ensure that they have rights to translate to English and various other languages.
CKtalon thank you(*´∀`)-♡
lookingxfor the official translations are the works that are not marked as "original". they're the translations that webnovel's official translators put out. the translated books that are not marked as "original" are not legal unless they received specific permission from the author, which they likely did not.
lookingxfor anything marked as original and is a translation is very likely illegally translated. Any official translations (not originals) are all legal because the original publisher Qidian and Webnovel belong to the same subsidiary of Tencent. In China, the publisher tends to hold all the rights to the works, while in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, the author tends to have more rights to give permission to fan translations. Therefore, I would caution against reading any translations of Chinese web-novels even with the author's permission unless it also has the publisher's permission.
3 years later
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@yaoyueyi so are there any repercussions of 'translating' without permission? and if yes then what
and also what if someone makes minimal changes to a plot won't it become a new novel? Doesn't that makes it grey?
karmic_daoist usually there are no consequences. if original author/copyright holder notices you, he will send you cease&desist or DMCA takedown. if you comply there will be no further actions. if you dont comply then it can further escalate and you can be brought to court for copyright infringement. but considering those proceedings are very expensive, usually it is not worth it, so they will bring DMCA takedown to your server provider of which 90% will comply and remove content/ban you.
also webnovel is doing lots of plagiarizing from non qidian novels where they change part of the novel and it becomes "new" novel. when comparing it side by side you see same story, but one has story flow and logic (no matter how flawed it is), while other is missing half explanations and has numerous inconsistencies. is it legal? i really couldnt tell cause of numerous reasons. it is definitely in gray zone and i would say immoral.
FNU_LNU thanks bud