This thread inspired me to ask about this. Subtitle sites provide text files containing all lines spoken in a movie, or (more usefully) a translation of these. Many of this texts are ripped from DVDs (meaning an OCR program is used to convert the images in a DVD to plain text), and many are fully translated by contributers. Is publishing any of this on the web illegal? I administrate one of these sites, so I’m pretty interested in the answer.
Keep in mind the OP is in Portugal, so the answer may be different.
joazito, which site do you administer? I’m always looking for translations into Spanish.
My opinion, though, is that it’s probably a copyright violation in the United States for anyone to offer for distribution the text. Interesting question, though – are transcripts copyrightable? There are a lot of song lyric sites.
I only have a right to the English and French dialogue on my DVD’s – if I want Spanish I should move to Mexico (except I did that and everything’s region 4 – Australia!).
Further, am I committing a copyright violation by using downloaded subtitles for personal use? Or just a DCMA violating by de-CSSing the DVD and making a new DVD with the new subs? Or, am I now scott free by being out of the USA?
It would most likely be a copyright violation unless the copyright holder granted permission.
Downloading the subtitles – technically it is a violation (you are making a copy without permission), but the copyright holder would more likely go up against whoever was distributing them.
Translations are individually copyrightable separately from the parent text. All my books that appeared in non-English versions have a translator’s copyright included on them.
My assumption is that the translation for a movie is owned by the studio that owns the movie itself or by the legally appointed distributor. Any site that posts these is violating copyright exactly as if it posts the original script or the visuals of the movie itself.
Creating a new translation is equally prohibited, as a translation is a derivative work as noted by Gfactor in post #19 in that other thread. No one but those specifically authorized to do so by the copyright holders can make a derivative work.
Because of the Berne Convention, this would hold in virtually every country.
The short answer is yes, this is illegal in every conceivable way.
What **Exapno **said.
Thanks for the answers guys. My site only has portuguese translations, Balthisar, you wouldn’t be interested.