I wanted to ask the translators out there, like do I need permission to translate Chinese fanfics from qidian and posting it on Webnovel in fanfic section? Please tell me guys, and if I need permission for the Chinese fanfics then how do I get it?
Are fan translated Chinese fanfics legal?
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Berserk_Asura I honestly don't know given the circumstances.
The vast majority of Fanfics are paywalled/contracted in China (to be clear, I don't mean sub to the writer/donation model, but a directly buy the chapters model).
Whilst by my understanding this is against copyright, they seem to operate on their own market and have their own rules without international shared ground. This is one of the reasons why companies can have trouble entering the Chinese market (as far as I know)
They can't do the same in other countries, so they can't do a legal translation nor sell it here. Therefore, you can't get "permission" so to speak, as they don't own the copyright to the IP in the first place.
If you were to just translate on your own time and post it in the fanfic section and say this is a fan translation of a chinese fanfic, I honestly don't think anyone is going to go to war over it.
Wolfick thanks bro, there are so many good fanfics out there hidden behind paywalls, and I am also thinking of translating a few good ones, I just wanted to confirm.