Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> If I publish a list in pig-latin, can I deem it illegal to translate that into English?

Yes, you are the sole publisher and owner of the rights to your list (IANAL but I took a course of history of publishing.). That's why you have some copyright notices in translated novels such as ~"publishing rights for the french/english/spanish version granted to $publisher".

> If I publish something in 8-bit ASCII, can I deem it illegal to "translate" that into English?

I am almost sure that in that case the appropriate verb is "to transcode" or "to convert". This is not a translation but a re-transcription which is still governed by copyright laws anyway.

Keep in mind that copyright laws regarding books are based on the publishing rights the author sells to a publisher not the ideas expressed.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: