Translating articles

Should I ask the writers?

[tilbryllupet]

Hi there, I'm from a none-english speaking country. As everyone else, we who live in such countries also want to provide our vistors with good, solid and interesting content like well written articles.
I may be a little?inflammatory? now, but here goes..
(was inflammatory the right word here?)

Even though some of us lives in none-speaking english countries, we do understand english, and know how to translate english into our own language.

And this of course makes it a little bit easier to just give a damn about copyright laws. The odds for beeing caught "stealing" someone elses articles are very small, if the article has been translated.

It also makes it a little bit easier to "make" articles and put them on our sites as fresh quality content - and of course, talk about them as our own.

I'm not saying I'm doing this, but I have to admit it's quite tempting.. It would make the work on writing articles a little less complicated, at least for us who aren't the best writers.

What are your opinions on this?
Would you have done this if it was possible for you? And you were 99.9% sure that you couldn't get caught doing so?

[anton23]

You cannot be 99.99% that you will not be caught. Remember that people that like the content will perhaps also read about it on English and see some duplicate content. It is not easy to spot you automatically, but you never know. Perhaps copyrights tools get better. Doing genuine research is not that difficult. And furthermore: English articles convert better than non-English articles, so it is a better business to translate into English.

[tilbryllupet]

Sure they do.. english articles convert better. But don't you think it's a difficult business for me and others that don't have english as our first language to compete with the guys from USA or England?

Of course it's a chance of getting caught, but I think it's very small. And I said 99.9%, not 99.99%. Sorry - just had to ;)

Thank you for your opinion! I'll stick to writing my own articles, it's more fun anyway.

[shigamoto]

I know about a journalist who did the same thing as you are thinking. She got caught, and her credibility destroyed for her whole life, the question is can you afford it in order to cheap out on content?

One might argue that the chance of getting caught is slim, but as you said most people do speak english and even read english. Chances are that they've read the content you have translated, especially if it's from major sources.

But if it you want to create a reliable content source you can obviously not do as you suggesting.

[tilbryllupet]

Sure, you are right about that. I see that it is a bad idea, but it still is tempting. Just to have it said: I have not done it, I am not doing it - and I don't think I'll ever do it. But what I will do is to find inspiration from english articles, find some that I like, read them a few times, and then write my own in my language.. This way I can't be stealing someone elses work, at least from my point of view.

[Content Writer]

find some [articles] that I like, read them a few times, and then write my own in my language...

Exactly. In my experience as a native English speaker, translating something into my own language is a pretty slow and tedious process.

If you're going to spend all that time, you might as well blend in your creativity and a couple more resources. Make it quality and original.

But it would be silly to assume that the game of paraphrasing isn't huge in SEO. A benign example is content rewriting: a webmaster expands his/her site by having a writer paraphrase existing content on the same site.

The other form of paraphrasing is a bit more controversial. On one end of the spectrum people call it theft, while others call it research. Heh.

Those who like to *research* (if they're smart) will take pains to make sure the content does not in any way plagiarize its source. By altering vocabulary, sentence structure and article structure, the writer is
creating a buffer of legal and algorithmic immunity.

Translating from one language to another can add another degree of strength to that buffer.

Question: if effective paraphrasing is so involved and time consuming, why do people do it?

Answer: research is even more involved. It entails hustle, imagination and intelligence. Paraphrasing, on the other hand, is a brainless, automated task that happens to get assigned to humans alot.

[Lobo]

I guess you can get away with that ...

but that is depending on how big you expect your site to become.... for make no mistake if you become successful and start to make decent money there will be someone envious or bitter or just plain ready to report you to the approprite place and try to close you down ..

[angelos]

Well, one day after having translated a good deal of articles you'll yourself become a pro in that art and acquire ability to write your own articles. Besides as far as a know the works of translation are also viewed as the objects of intelectual activity and can thus be protected by copywrite laws. The only stipulation here is that you've got to get author's permission then. Anyway the process of learning on all stages of life starts with all kinds of imitation and adoption, so why not to start from this point.

[Harry]

There was a good thread a few months ago, I believe where one of the poster said - whatever you ask, if you have to ask it here, it must be illegal.

Most schemes to "generate contents" are just that schemes. If you're wondering if you should do it, it's probably wrong.

Asking the question to folks here won't make it legal or right.

[engine]

Well, have I missed something here? Why not contact the originators and come to a licencing agreement whereby both of you make some money from the original work?

[I Will Make It]

Hi, I used to be tilbryllupet..had to change my nick.

Anyways.. if you read the meta topic, you'll see that my real question is "Should I ask the writers?" So I totally agree with you on not to steal anybody's content. However as one of you mentioned a few posts ago, I really do have to "rewrite" the articles in order to translate them, so I really have to use my imagination and intellect. Having that said, I also want to point out again that I haven't been stealing anything. I just wanted you guys & girls opinion. And I'm really satisfied with the answers I have got. So thank you all for showing interest to my question! =)

Again: WW really IS the place to go, if you have something on your mind!

[oddsod]

whatever you ask, if you have to ask it here, it must be illegal

Is it OK to cache content like Google does? :)

[Leva]

You're talking about foreign language rights.

And yeah, you need to contact the writers to buy said rights.

Also, the writers in question may have already SOLD the foreign language rights to somebody else -- and you may find that you're dealing with an agent with extensive legal experience and a pet lawyer, or a large corporate entity with lawyers instead of Joe Blow Author. Granted, it'd have to be a fairly prolific nonfiction writer to have an agent, but it happens.

Even if you're hosting on a foreign ISP, if your ISP is made aware that you're hosting material that belongs to someone else, you may find your site taken down by your host. If it's a particularly useful article, the rights may already have been sold in your language and your competitor may come after you with glee.

If foreign language rights aren't sold -- or if the writer hasn't sold *universal* rights to somebody -- they may be fairly cheap to buy. Talk to the writer in question.

Leva

[Dijkgraaf]

Is it OK to cache content like Google does? :)

Well some people think it is not OK. Personally I have no problems with it, but then my site is non-commercial and so I don't have to worry about econic impact of this.

But if you are asking is it breaking copyright, then the courts said no it isn't.