Are late translations of public domain books fair game?

CeffylDu · Post by **CeffylDu** » June 28th, 2017, 4:42 am

Hello,
I've got a dream of recording the book Ar gwr y goedwig with is a Welsh translation of a French novel (Maria Chapdelaine) which was published in 1913. The tranlsation came out in the fifties and came out with ready permission from the rights holder (éditions bernard grasset). I am certain that this translation is also in the public domain but I would like some confirmation before i begin.

Thanks and all the best
Gareth Llewelyn

carteki · Post by **carteki** » June 28th, 2017, 4:53 am

Hi,
No as the rights to the translation are held by the translator and therefore PD is based on the translators life (since I'm guessing that you are based in the UK which has a death+70 period until a book becomes PD). If you are based in the UK and the translator died more than 70 years ago then you can record it via the EU version of Librivox which is at www.legamus.eu.
Kim

CeffylDu · Post by **CeffylDu** » June 28th, 2017, 5:10 am

What if it's possible to obtain permission from the translator?

Post by **annise** » June 28th, 2017, 5:15 am

cross post
If the translation came out in the 50's it's unlikely that it is PD even in the UK So it's not going to be PD automatically , what evidence do you have that the translation was made PD, anything that you could show us ? . It would be nice to have but we do need to be very careful about post 1922 publications.

Anne
It has been done with permission but it's difficult for us . Is there an online copy ? What would you be reading from ?

Post by **TriciaG** » June 28th, 2017, 5:25 am

You'd need to be sure the translator AND publisher released it into the public domain. (And since "public domain" means they give up all their rights to it, it's fairly certain that won't happen.)