Google Chrome & copyright violation

Does Google Chrome violate our copyrights?

[Sylver]

I had a talk with my dad recently. "You know, your website's French translation really sucks. Do you even speak the language anymore?"

Since I am a professional translator, this is not the kind of things I want to hear. And it didn't make sense.

First because I take pride in what I do and I am generally considered to be a pretty good translator, and second, because my website is not translated. It's in English. There is no French version.

Then I realized what happened: he was using Google Chrome (which I recommended to him), and Google Chrome translated my website automatically. That stinks. I create a website specifically to promote my translation services, and Google Chrome "helpfully" replaces my content with French-sounding nonsense.

Result, Google Chrome users think they are looking at a sample of my work when they are in fact looking at Google's machine translation.

I am a bit conflicted here because I think it's a great feature that comes in handy when you have to find information on pages in a different language, but on the other end, because the translation process is fairly transparent, the user often believes he is looking at the original website, and in my case, that seriously damages my reputation. I mean, if my own parents can be tricked into thinking I am forgetting my mother tongue, what do potential customers think?

Thinking about it, it is actually a violation of my copyrights and I am wondering what I can do about it: After all, copyrights include translation rights. Translations are considered derivative works and can not be performed without previous authorization of the copyright owner. I don't remember authorizing Google to translate my pages. Ever.

What gives Google the right to change the content of my pages before displaying them to the end user?

I don't want my pages translated automatically, but Google Chrome doesn't give me much choice, does it? I wrote a bug report to the Google Chrome team and haven't received a reply.

Now, I am considering my options. What can I do to set this right?

[Major_Payne]

Need to quit complaining and look for a solution or add a notice on your pages as to what reader's can do:

The option to disable the translation bar for all sites and languages is now available on Google Chrome Stable for Windows version 4.1.249.1045. Go to Tools > About Google Chrome to check your version number and update if necessary.

To disable the translation bar for all sites and languages, go to Tools > Options > Under the Hood > Translate and deselect the box next to "Offer to translate pages that aren't in a language I read."

To disable the translation bar for a particular language or site, click Options on the right side of the bar and select either "Never translate this site" or "Never translate [this language]."

See Webpages: Translation bar [google.com].

To re-enable the translation bar for a site you've previously blacklisted, you can use the following work-around. Note that this work-around requires you to change your preferences file. Changing this file incorrectly might cause you to lose your preferences, so only do this if you feel comfortable, and be sure to make the correct changes. Here are the steps:

1. Close Google Chrome.

2. Open the file C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Preferences in Notepad (or your favorite text editor).

3. Look for the line starting with:
"translate_language_blacklist": [ ...

4. Remove the languages between the [ ] for which you want to see the infobar again. To bring back the infobar for every language, simply replace that line with:
"translate_language_blacklist": [ ],

5. Save that file and restart Google Chrome.

If you would look in Chrome's Settings on the "Under the Hood" tab, you'll see a check box there about translating.

See: Translation Bar [google.com]

[Sylver]

Sure, stop complaining. Got it. Now, let's just change my pages and make a note for the user. After all, the first thing I want the user to see on my website is a note to explain how to fix his browser's settings.

And of course, the note would be in English... and translated automatically by Google Chrome like everything else (and the resulting translation will suck big time).

Or should I get the note translated right from the start in all possible languages? After all, it would take only 20 languages or so to cover the main languages of my visitors. A small note like that would only take half a dozen full screens of text. No doubt it won't inconvenience my users.

However, there remains a little issue: whom should I display the note to? To all Google Chrome users? Most of them will see the page in English and the note will make no sense at all.

Of course, copyright law clearly states that the copyright's owner possesses all rights to translation but that doesn't apply to the Google. Google being Google, they can do whatever they please with just about anything, right?

Suppose just for a second that Google ran an automatic spell check on your pages before displaying them to the users. Now suppose that the spell checking, being automatic, actually adds mistakes to your page. Suppose that the problem was so bad that a significant percentage of your visitors left your website in disgust over your lousy spelling. Now, imagine that you were a professional proofreader and were offering spell checking services. Would you still advise to "stop whining" and just display a note for your visitors?

I am the author. I wrote the pages in English, and I want the user to see my pages the way they were written. Not some lame machine translation full of grammatical errors, nonsensical sentences and mistranslations.

Is that really too much to ask?

[Demaestro]

It is unfortunate that the translation from Chrome is so bad.

However it isn't copyright infringement by any stretch of the imagination.

I am the author. I wrote the pages in English, and I want the user to see my pages the way they were written. Not some lame machine translation full of grammatical errors, nonsensical sentences and mistranslations.

Yes but if a viewer who speaks Arabic and no English wants to read your website content then they are going to have to translate it using some sort of automatic tool unless they have a translator beside them.

Do you have stats on percentage of people using Chrome on your site? If it is a small amount of viewers then don't worry.

The problem seems to be that your father doesn't understand that the browser is doing the translation and that it isn't your site that is poorly written. I doubt many Google Chrome users with the translator turned on would make that same mistake. Not enough to worry about it IMO.

[Staffa]

a viewer who speaks Arabic and no English

would unlikely have found these pages since the viewer's search would have been in another language than english.

It may not be copyright infringement but I agree with Sylver that the browser should not automatically translate into whatever language it thinks the viewer uses.

There were times when I had sites in four languages, which I wrote myself, and I ban all G translate views just because of the low quality the viewer gets to see.

[Demaestro]

the browser should not automatically translate into whatever language it thinks the viewer uses

It doesn't, it pops up a toolbar asking if you want to translate the page. It may be possible to bypass that notification and have it set to just translate without asking but that isn't the default behavior.

[commanderW]

Hi Sylver - You really are in an unusual position ! It's almost funny ( but not).

Does Staffa have the solution?

There were times when I had sites in four languages, which I wrote myself, and I ban all G translate views just because of the low quality the viewer gets to see.

This made me think. What if you make this situation work for you? Do your own french translation of your page. Put a prominent link that tells the visiotr that if they are seeing a french version in google chrome (or from the link in google serps that says 'translate this page') then it is not yours, and anyone who wants to see your proper french can click on a link and get youre official french version. Thereby you clear up confusion and get to advertise your product against the automatic competition. (Why should they want to pay you when they can get it done by google? Here's why :)

[Sylver]

However it isn't copyright infringement by any stretch of the imagination.

How so? My website is under my copyright. If Google translates it without my permission and then displays it to a third party, isn't that an unauthorized translation?

According to the copyright office (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html):

A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation...

and

the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:...(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

Google doesn't have the copyright to the pages it translates, and it doesn't have permission from the copyright owner. Google might asks permission to the user, but as it happens, the user also does not have the copyright and is therefore not in position to give that permission either.

Could you explain me why you think this is not a violation of my copyrights? What is the rationale behind your opinion? Can you see any legal basis that gives Google the right to translate whatever it pleases without asking the content owner?

[Sylver]

a viewer who speaks Arabic and no English

would unlikely have found these pages since the viewer's search would have been in another language than english.

It may not be copyright infringement but I agree with Sylver that the browser should not automatically translate into whatever language it thinks the viewer uses.

There were times when I had sites in four languages, which I wrote myself, and I ban all G translate views just because of the low quality the viewer gets to see.

Exactly.

Actually, I am fine if the user wants to translate my pages as long as it its unmistakably the decision of the user and that he is made fully aware that he is looking at a translation made by Google, and not by me.

Right now, the way this works is too ambiguous. All it takes is one user to make one setting, at any point of time, and from there on out, every website will be translated automatically on that computer. Given what we know of average users, how many of them would remember that settings just a week later?

On top of that, many computers are casually shared and that the decisions of one user go for every one. In my example (real), the settings were most likely changed by my mom (who is not very computer literate). My dad looking at the computer didn't know what was up.

[Sylver]

Hi Sylver - You really are in an unusual position ! It's almost funny ( but not).

It's funny in my case, I'll give you that. However, it is not unusual, actually. It affects every website owner. Google Chrome represents nearly 4% of the visitors out there.

Me being a translator, the problem is obvious, but the dangers of mistranslations are more insidious than that. If a visitor lands on your site and sees gibberish, it lowers his opinion of you (or your company). If there is a mistranslation, he may misunderstand what you wrote, and that can have consequences (inability to use your products, failure to understand your TOCs...).

And Google's mistakes are not just funny. Quite often, Google translates gets it totally wrong and says the opposite of what the original said. It can easily translate "non-refundable" by "fully refundable".

I don't think you really understand the consequences of somebody looking at machine translation thinking it is the original page.

It's a rather new issue, but I expect the problem to worsen as Google Translate improves (the better it gets, the harder it is for the user to understand that it can be totally wrong, in ways that only a computer can even conceive).

Does Staffa have the solution?

There were times when I had sites in four languages, which I wrote myself, and I ban all G translate views just because of the low quality the viewer gets to see.

This problem affects Google Chrome users who have made settings which I can not detect. So to implement Staffa's solution, I would have to ban all Google Chrome users from viewing my pages.

I don't want to ban 4% of my visitors because some of them might see a translated version of the page.

This made me think. What if you make this situation work for you? Do your own french translation of your page. Put a prominent link that tells the visiotr that if they are seeing a french version in google chrome (or from the link in google serps that says 'translate this page') then it is not yours, and anyone who wants to see your proper french can click on a link and get youre official french version. Thereby you clear up confusion and get to advertise your product against the automatic competition. (Why should they want to pay you when they can get it done by google? Here's why :)

I thought about that, but it's not really doable:
1. I can't detect when the translation occurs. All I can see is whether or not the user is using Google Chrome.

2. The user can land on any of my pages and see it in any of the languages supported by Chrome. I have about 40-50k words on my site. Translating properly in 4-5 languages would cost around $20,000. Let's not even think of what it would cost for all of Google Translate's languages.
3. Even if I did that, I wouldn't be able to redirect the customers because of #1: I can't detect when the problem occurs.

[Sylver]

the browser should not automatically translate into whatever language it thinks the viewer uses

It doesn't, it pops up a toolbar asking if you want to translate the page. It may be possible to bypass that notification and have it set to just translate without asking but that isn't the default behavior.

Actually it did, at the beginning.

Then that behavior was replaced with the current behavior (silently. Google Chrome just updates and changes its behavior with no warning): First, it asks if you want to translate the page. If you do, it asks if you want to always translate pages to your language. So all it takes is 2 clicks and that's it.

Hours later, most users will have forgotten all about it. What are the odds they will remember 5 or 6 months down the line?

And that still doesn't answer the copyright part of the issue. Translation rights are the exclusive province of the copyright's owner. Neither Google nor the user own the copyright, so I don't see any legal basis for Google's automatic translation.

Do you know of any law that would enable Google to translate other people's content without their permission? If Google has legal grounds, I would like to know what they are.

[idolw]

There is one Polish blog I know of that does not display content to Chrome users. An information in Polish shows up and says "Change browser, we do not like Chrome.".
Of course, they do it because the believe in something and because it is a blog. Their corporate website is available to chrome users.

[zozzen]

yeah, this function is awfully annoying and it's one of the reasons (along with their bug that effectively disallows you to install extension) that i don't use Chrome.

Glad to see that there's finally a way to disable it. Another better option is to allow webmasters to disable it.

The first day when i tried google chrome, i thought it was amazingly great, but their beta, under-developed status always surprise me. Is it google?

[Sylver]

Glad to see that there's finally a way to disable it. Another better option is to allow webmasters to disable it.

Exactly. Webmasters should have the right to decide whether to allow automatic translation of their pages, or at least have a way to detect this is happening.