Re: WAI WCAG 1.0 Russian translation

Foreword: This message contains some detailed discussions of
special cases. But the main goal of this effort is to get many
good translations, and one of the best ways to get there is
to work together. Nothing said below forbids that!


At 18:04 02/04/25 +0400, Alexander Savenkov wrote:
>Hello translators, Andrei, Kirill.

> > As we only start translating, there are some questions we have.
> > 1. If there is a known translation of one of your documents (HTML 4.01
> > for example) and I find it very useful, but full of mistakes and
> > "unclearness", may I use this translation for further development? Exactly,
> > the question is in licensing: in GPL, for instance, there is an ability to
> > make certain changes to the source and distribute this changed source 
> with a
> > copyright notice of an original author/editor left.
>   Partial rights for the translated text belong to the translator I suppose.

Yes indeed. The copyright in a translation is jointly held by the
copyright holder of the original and the translator.


> > a. So, can I make changes to a translation and ditribute it (or
> > publish on my own web-site) modifying copyright notice like this:
> > "Translated by Original Translator; revised and corrected by Revisor, 
> 2002"?
>   May I answer, Martin?
>   You shouldn't modify the document's copyright notice in any way.
>   Instead, you may want to insert some comments/annotations into the
>   text of translation clearly marking them as yours (i. e. using CSS).

As part of giving the permission to translate, the W3C requires that
the translation is available under the same conditions as the original.
So e.g. everybody is allowed to print it out.

But the original W3C copyright also forbids changing of a W3C document
(except for translations). Extending that to the translation that would
mean that changing a translation (without the permission of the
translator) is not permitted. I'm not sure that's the only possible
interpretation, but it seems to be the most reasonable interpretation.

There is a very specific exception to this; if the W3C knows about
errors, and asks the translator to fix them, then the translator
*has to* fix them. So (at least in theory), it would be possible to
prepare a list of errors, submit it to the W3C, convince the W3C
that these are really errors, and then have the W3C request the
translator to fix the errors.

As Alex wrote above, annotating a W3C specification is permitted,
and therefore annotating a translation is permitted. Please see
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620.html#annotate
for details. Also, translating a W3C spec is permitted, and therefore
translating a translation is permitted (under the conditions given at
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620.html#translate).
An example would be if somebody would take a Russian translation and
translate it into Belorussian.



> > b. Does any W3C licensing statement deny this?
>   Check out the W3C IPR FAQ at 
> http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620.html
>   I found no information concerning your case there.

Indeed there is no explicit information. I tried to give the
best interpretation that I could find above.


> > c. Can translator deny this? (I guess not, but we need to be sure, of
> > course)
>   If I were the author of the translation I would prefer to correct
>   the mistakes myself.
>
>Best regards and happy translating.

Happy translating, and happy collaboration.       Martin.

Received on Tuesday, 30 April 2002 23:12:26 UTC