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'Yoko Shibui Enters 'Diet Camp'' - A Nice IAAF Rewrite (updated)

http://www.spikesmag.com/news/yokoshibuientersdietcamp377.aspx

The IAAF's spikesmag.com evidently liked my translation of the two articles about Shibui's Kunming training camp, published Apr. 6, as they've appropriated my translation of her quotes verbatim, lightly rewritten the rest, and republished it under their own byline without credit either to me or to the authors of the source articles. Take a look and, if you appreciate the work I put into JRN, feel free to leave them a comment.

As I say, clearly I think, in the 'About My Translations' box to the right, I'm happy to have the professional-quality translation work I provide free on this blog, at considerable cost to my free time, quoted and utilized by others in the somewhat idealistic interest of making some mostly invisible aspects of the great world of Japanese distance running accessible to those elsewhere and ask only to be acknowledged as the translator.

This is not the first time this has happened, but repeated instances, particularly by large organizations such as this, will sooner or later lead to it being the last.

Update - 11:12 p.m.: Well, in response to a message I sent them pointing out that their article is a cut and paste of my translation of articles from the Nikkan and Yomiuri newspaper websites, the Spikes article now says Shibui told JRN about her training camp. I translated her comments from the Nikkan and Yomiuri pieces linked in my Apr. 6 article, but that's a step in the right direction, I guess. Thank you, sort of, Spikes editorial staff, for the prompt attention to this matter.

Comments

GKK said…
A frustrating situation, but a tough one to solve - bit of a legal minefield.
Brett Larner said…
Yes indeed, there is more than one reason my translations are free. But I'm not really looking for any solution, just a simple 'thank you.' If that is too much to ask then I'm afraid organizations such as this will have to start looking elsewhere.
Scott Douglas said…
Brett, you have to understand: The IAAF is such a cash-strapped organization. It's a miracle they can even cobble together the money to keep a Web site up.
David Hall said…
Hi Brett.

Thanks for your comment on the Yoko Shibui story and your follow-up story that you ran on your blog regarding our “re-write”. I've amended the story to credit your original piece and linked back to your original blog.

In future, if you require third parties to credit you and you alone, I suggest you do not use lines like "Shibui told reporters" – this implies that you have no exclusivity on the text and, therefore, aren’t the sole source for the story weakening your case for a credit. A better line would be “she told Japan Running News”. I take on board your statement on the right of the page regarding translation but we don’t byline anyone for writing or translation on our site or in our magazine.

We trawl multiple news sources everyday as well as generating our own pieces which too are re-purposed by other news sources. So goes the internet.

We'll be sure to always give you a link in the future. Keep up the good work.

David Hall
Editor, SPIKES and spikesmag.com
Jason Mayeroff said…
David Hall: What part of "Professional Translations" do you not understand???
Very nice blog, is really interesting and fabulous
Really nice!!!
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