I don't think I really qualify as a *good* translator ^_^; since it's not as if I actually know Japanese. But also, oddly enough, I'm not sure I *want* a lot of English-speaking fans to know about the translations? Because eventually, one of them might turn them into English-language scanslations, which I have weird feelings about. (Though maybe not as weird as Kaoru's about Kiyosato.)
...See, I don't mind Stasy making Russian scanslations because I assume it's harder to buy the actual physical doujinshi from Russia. But most English-speaking fans are probably in the US, where it's possible to get them from eBay (that's how I bought all of mine-- a lot of them were air-mailed from Japan, though there are also some US/Canadian resellers). And since scanslations are probably made in Photoshop or a similar digital medium, that increases the chances of someone eventually selling CD-ROMS of English scanslations on eBay. (Lots of people already sell CD-ROMS full of doujinshi in the original Japanese-language format. I hate that.)
I mean, I enjoy doing the translations (at least most of the time :b ) and I'm never sure how accurate they are anyway, so I have no objection to working on them on a volunteer basis-- but I would hate it if other people made money from my work without telling me. (This happened to a piece of Star Wars fanfic I wrote years ago-- someone took it off the web, put it into a print fanzine, and sold copies of it. At least they had the conscience to find my email address after that and give me a free copy.)
Though the entire economics/morality of doujinshi and the resale market is very complicated anyway-- if I pay some ridiculous price to someone on eBay for "Kyouken 7", the extra profit goes to them, not Yamaguchirow. On the other hand, if they know they can make a huge profit from each one, then they'll buy as many copies of "Kyouken 8" as they can carry away from the next Comiket, so Yamaguchirow still benefits in that way. And doujinshi and fanfic are both technically copyright violations anyway-- does any part of the sale price of "Kyouken" ever go to Watsuki as the creator of RK? Nope... except if "Kyouken" indirectly encourages people to go buy licensed RK stuff that sends a percentage back to him.
I should add that on one of my usual RK discussion boards, some people were FURIOUS to accidentally find out that Stasy was translating some RK fanfic into Russian. Strangely, none of those were the actual English-language authors of the stories; I know there was at least one other of those authors there besides me, and we were just vaguely surprised/flattered.
(Besides, obviously there's worldwide access to LJ; I haven't friends-locked the translation entries, so anyone who knows about them can still read them... I'm not sure how much I want to publicize their existence, though....)
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2006-05-17 08:56 pm (UTC)...See, I don't mind Stasy making Russian scanslations because I assume it's harder to buy the actual physical doujinshi from Russia. But most English-speaking fans are probably in the US, where it's possible to get them from eBay (that's how I bought all of mine-- a lot of them were air-mailed from Japan, though there are also some US/Canadian resellers). And since scanslations are probably made in Photoshop or a similar digital medium, that increases the chances of someone eventually selling CD-ROMS of English scanslations on eBay. (Lots of people already sell CD-ROMS full of doujinshi in the original Japanese-language format. I hate that.)
I mean, I enjoy doing the translations (at least most of the time :b ) and I'm never sure how accurate they are anyway, so I have no objection to working on them on a volunteer basis-- but I would hate it if other people made money from my work without telling me. (This happened to a piece of Star Wars fanfic I wrote years ago-- someone took it off the web, put it into a print fanzine, and sold copies of it. At least they had the conscience to find my email address after that and give me a free copy.)
Though the entire economics/morality of doujinshi and the resale market is very complicated anyway-- if I pay some ridiculous price to someone on eBay for "Kyouken 7", the extra profit goes to them, not Yamaguchirow. On the other hand, if they know they can make a huge profit from each one, then they'll buy as many copies of "Kyouken 8" as they can carry away from the next Comiket, so Yamaguchirow still benefits in that way. And doujinshi and fanfic are both technically copyright violations anyway-- does any part of the sale price of "Kyouken" ever go to Watsuki as the creator of RK? Nope... except if "Kyouken" indirectly encourages people to go buy licensed RK stuff that sends a percentage back to him.
I should add that on one of my usual RK discussion boards, some people were FURIOUS to accidentally find out that Stasy was translating some RK fanfic into Russian. Strangely, none of those were the actual English-language authors of the stories; I know there was at least one other of those authors there besides me, and we were just vaguely surprised/flattered.
(Besides, obviously there's worldwide access to LJ; I haven't friends-locked the translation entries, so anyone who knows about them can still read them... I'm not sure how much I want to publicize their existence, though....)