Afrikaans books

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OneHugaDay
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Post by OneHugaDay »

I noticed that in the catalog there are only 5 Afrikaans publications available.

Are their any Afrikaans speakers out there that would be interested in starting a project to get more Afrikaans books available in the catalog?
Where can we find Afrikaans books that that are in the Public domain? I have tried to look at archive.org but cannot seem to locate any Afrikaans publications.

Any input welcome.

Jacques

NS. Ek en my familie doen op die oomblik die "expat-ding" en daarom miskien die hunkering om bietjie meer Afrikaans te hoor.
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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx
OneHugaDay
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Post by OneHugaDay »

Can any perhaps tell me if it would be acceptable to make a recording of the Afrikaans Bible?

The one I have in mind was published in 1933.
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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx
Starlite
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Post by Starlite »

OneHugaDay wrote:Can any perhaps tell me if it would be acceptable to make a recording of the Afrikaans Bible?

The one I have in mind was published in 1933.
Sorry but in order to be public domain in the US (we follow US rules as our servers are based there), they must be published before 1923.

Not much choice of books on Project Gutenberg either: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/South_Africa_%28Bookshelf%29


Esther :)
"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people." George Bernard Shaw
kattekliek
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Post by kattekliek »

Does South-Africa have any copyright laws based on the date of death of the author (like in EU: 70 year after death of the author and translator - whichever came last - their works come into the public domain)? If not, anything published prior to 1923 (US copyright law) would be acceptable for Librivox - as also Starlite mentioned above.

And indeed it seems hard to find public domain books in Afrikaans. On Gutenberg.org there are only these three:
Oom Gert Vertel en Ander Gedigte by Christiaan Louis Leipoldt
Prosa van die twede Afrikaanse beweging by Pieter Cornelis Schoonees
Trekkerswee by Totius


I found something of S.J. du Toit (who died in 1911, by the way the father of the above mentioned Totius) at the Dutch literature site dbnl.org. His book "Di koningin fan Skeba of Salomo syn oue goudfelde in Sambesia" is said to have been the first historical novel in Afrikaans. Now that is interesting! :) However, this version seems to have been issued/editted only as late as the 1990’s, which basically renders the online text useless for Librivox! But if you could locate the original in a library (or a reprint of 1922 the latest), it could be read for Librivox (or scanned, uploaded to archive.org and read by someone else).

I have searched in Google Books and there are quite some Afrikaans books of 1922 and earlier (public domain in US) mentioned. However, not one of them is actually available. Perhaps US residents can see them (then they could upload the PDF to archive.org)? If not, you could go to a library mentioned on the site, or contact such a library asking them to make a scan available on the web. With regard to the Bible in Afrikaans: only some parts of it seem to have been published before 1922 (could still be interesting though?).

Lately, an Afrikaans speaking lady stopped by in one of the Dutch Librivox-topics; her username is Meisie. She isn’t recording herself, I think. But perhaps she has any ideas? You could contact her by sending a private message, if she won’t already find this topic without it :)

P.S. Na het Afrikaans op de GPS in onze auto (‘draai rechts, blij op die linkerbaan, rij die snelweg op’) zou ik het ook wel leuk vinden om eens wat meer en interessanter Afrikaans te horen ;)
Do you live in Europe, Canada, Australia, ... any country where death date of author determines if a book is in the Public Domain? Come to legamus.eu to record books published in 1923 or later, written by authors dead since >70 years!
OneHugaDay
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Post by OneHugaDay »

According to the South African Copyright Act, literary works enter the public domain after fifty years counted from the beginning of the following calendar year after the author dies. For published editions the period is fifty years from the end of the year in which the edition was first published.

A South African work that is in the public domain in South Africa according to this rule is in the public domain in the U.S. only if it was in the public domain in South Africa in 1996, e.g. if it was published before 1946 and no copyright was registered in the U.S. (This is the effect of 17 USC 104A with its critical date of January 1, 1996.)

South African copyright law available at: http://www.cipro.co.za/legislation%20forms/Copyright/Copyright%20Act.pdf

In the light of the above does the Afrikaans Bible that was published in 1933 fall in the public domain?
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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx
kattekliek
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Post by kattekliek »

OneHugaDay wrote:In the light of the above does the Afrikaans Bible that was published in 1933 fall in the public domain?
It seems so, but I am not at all an expert! Please await an answer from the LV-admins. You might have to get official clearance before being able to record any work that has been published later than 1922.
Do you live in Europe, Canada, Australia, ... any country where death date of author determines if a book is in the Public Domain? Come to legamus.eu to record books published in 1923 or later, written by authors dead since >70 years!
Cori
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Post by Cori »

I think to establish SA public domainness, you'd need to know the date of death of the translator, OneHugaDay, and that would need to be before 1960, unless the work was translated as a "work for hire" by an organisation (in which case, I think the publication + 50 applies.) However, the best way to confirm that this is okay to record here, would be to contact gutenberg.org with the relevant information -- we don't have lawyers on the team, whereas they do. I'm very doubtful of the 1996 date, but that's just a feeling, rather than any definite knowledge.

The Hathi Trust is sometimes a good alternative source -- though in this case, they have over 900 Africaans books, only a few of them are in the US public domain and available in their entirety. I can't paste their search here, but if you go to: http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Advanced and select Afrikaans, Year of publication: Before or During 1922, that should show you what they have. Although I don't speak/read Afrikaans, I'm pretty sure the Bible they have there is in a different language entirely and is mis-catalogued. :(

Also, lots of Google Books are available at archive.org without the geographical restrictions, so if you find something you'd like to read at Google Books, well worth a double-check at the Internet Archive!
There's honestly no such thing as a stupid question -- but I'm afraid I can't rule out giving a stupid answer : : To Posterity and Beyond!
JakieVeez
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Post by JakieVeez »

Further to this topic:

I am new here and also an Afrikaans speaking individual. I have a friend that I assume to be well connected in the Afrikaans literature. I will ask him about Afrikaans works in the public domain and where we can find uploadable text. He is very keen on promoting Afrikaans text, especially on the internet.

If we should find anything, where do we upload it so that it can become a project at some point?
Cori
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Post by Cori »

It's a fair bit of work, but the best place for texts would be submitting to Project Gutenberg -- http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:How-To

They'd do the copyright review and make the text very widely available. We don't have any facilities here for storing text files. Sometimes they can be linked from the archive.org site, and uploading there is another option: simpler in some ways, but with fewer benefits to us regarding having file formats everyone can access and full copyright checks.

[I know I'm going on about copyright a bit, but it differs by country. We need to follow US law, since our files are ultimately stored in the US, as well as local law for each volunteer. Books published before 1923 will work best for us ... after that date, it's going to be extremely difficult to prove an Afrikaans book in the US public domain.]

Once you have a clearly public domain text, then it can become a project here -- could be a solo or a group recording: the exact mechanics of setting up the project will depend on that sort of thing. The Launch Pad has some forum threads which talk more about this, but just ask if you're not sure.
There's honestly no such thing as a stupid question -- but I'm afraid I can't rule out giving a stupid answer : : To Posterity and Beyond!
Ingrid
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Post by Ingrid »

JakieVeez wrote: May 10th, 2012, 5:50 am Further to this topic:

I am new here and also an Afrikaans speaking individual. I have a friend that I assume to be well connected in the Afrikaans literature. I will ask him about Afrikaans works in the public domain and where we can find uploadable text. He is very keen on promoting Afrikaans text, especially on the internet.

If we should find anything, where do we upload it so that it can become a project at some point?
That would be great, Jakie as I want read some Afrikaans books too.

Ciao!
Ingrid
Ingrid
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Post by Ingrid »

Hi all,

This is a bit simpler to understand methinks, and I found it on http://publishsa.co.za/copyright/faq, the PASA, Publishing Association of South Africa. I have also asked them for a list of Public DOmain books, so let's see if we get this :-)

In every book, journal, periodical or magazine there exist two separate but interlinked copyrights:
In the content, the literary work itself. Copyright in the work usually belongs to the author (unless he or she has assigned it to the publisher). In South Africa, the duration of copyright is the life of the author plus 50 years from the end of the year in which the author dies. When copyright expires, the work falls into the public domain, and may be freely used and exploited by anyone.
In the published edition or typographical arrangement on the page. Copyright in the published edition belongs to the publisher. Copyright in the published edition lasts for 50 years from date of publication. Thus, even when copyright in the literary work has expired, copyright in the published edition may still subsist
.

Ciao!
Ingrid
Availle
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Post by Availle »

50 years is "good" copyright!

But don't forget that we at LV must adhere to copyright in the USA.

And there, books are in the public domain if they have been published BEFORE 1923. For everything published afterwards, copyright is much more complicated, and public domain status is often difficult to establish.
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