Is it copyright infringement

[Anonymous]

If I scan a book and translate it for personal use?

[Anonymous]

Probably technically yes. But you can argue fair use. And who is going to enforce that against you?

[Anonymous]

A nasty person who saw me doing it.

Lets say we are immigrants, he hates us and "caught me" doing the translation. He threatened contacting "authorities" so I'm just checking if what I did was serious or just another "removing labels from a mattress" kind of crime.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

What kind of book was it? Do you own the book you scanned? Did you scan the whole book? What was the translation for?

[Anonymous]

This doesn't fall into any fair use category (parody, news reporting, criticism, etc.). That said the "authorities" would be the book publishers who don't have a police force to enforce these things -- nor would they care.

Now if you are doing it to give translated copies to all your neighbors-- then you have a problem.

[Anonymous]

no, fuck the rat. who's he going to report it to?

scan, torrent, download, pirate till your hearts content.

[Anonymous]

Don't be intimidated by this ass. No one cares that you are translating a book. Maybe if you planned to sell the translation but for personal use, no.

[Anonymous]

Do you own the book you scanned? Is the translation for personal use?

[Anonymous]

^whoops, sorry, you already said that the translation is for personal use.

[Anonymous]

Did you tell him to stand on the sidewalk, point, and screech, "rule-breaker! rule-breaker!"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't fall into any fair use category (parody, news reporting, criticism, etc.). That said the "authorities" would be the book publishers who don't have a police force to enforce these things -- nor would they care.

Now if you are doing it to give translated copies to all your neighbors-- then you have a problem.

I am a copyright lawyer, and this is the correct answer. The people who say all personal use is fair use are absolutely wrong. Even if you're not selling it, you don't have the right to copy, reproduce, sell, give away, etc. copyrighted material except in very limited circumstances. That said, the copyright owner is unlikely to do anything about this even if this guy contacts them.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but what about if the guy doesn't go to the copyright publisher, and instead goes to the cops or INS. The guy sounds unhinged enough to drag immigration into it, even if there is no cause, just to further harass the OP.

[Anonymous]

Fair use! An entire book? I'm so glad 7:41 posted.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much.

My friends son has a medical condition and the only published book about it in "easy to read" non medical language is in English. She doesn't read English so I bought the book and wanted to translate it for her.

Using a doc version and throw chunks at a time on google translate and correct the mistakes would be much much easier than having the book on my lap and translating word by word in a note pad.

Thanks to all for your responses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't fall into any fair use category (parody, news reporting, criticism, etc.). That said the "authorities" would be the book publishers who don't have a police force to enforce these things -- nor would they care.

Now if you are doing it to give translated copies to all your neighbors-- then you have a problem.

I am a copyright lawyer, and this is the correct answer. The people who say all personal use is fair use are absolutely wrong. Even if you're not selling it, you don't have the right to copy, reproduce, sell, give away, etc. copyrighted material except in very limited circumstances. That said, the copyright owner is unlikely to do anything about this even if this guy contacts them.

What is this?