Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 April 12

= April 12 =

Western-most kilometer of the Great Wall
Where is the western-most kilometer of the Great Wall from the perspectives of a. tourist location and b. archeological research (of any historical period)? Muzzleflash (talk) 10:57, 12 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Assuming you mean the Great Wall of China, our article has a whole section on this. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 11:09, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Translating copyrighted works
Let's say I read an amazing book in English. Now, I want to translate it to my native language, Arabic, just for fun and in order to improve my English skills, in addition to share it with my friends. (Who don't understand English).

Is that still illegal? I mean, It's for personal uses only. --إلياس الجزائري (talk) 23:51, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I suspect the "sharing it with friends" part is where you run into potential trouble. But it would depend on where you are, and what the copyright and fair-use laws have to say. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:52, 13 April 2016 (UTC)


 * someone owns the right to sell the license to translate the book for commercial purpose...established via international treaties etc...so if you wanted to translate a book from English to Arabic for any kind of commercial purpose you would have to be granted a license to do so by the person/company that owns that right etc...68.48.241.158 (talk) 01:26, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

It depends on local law, but the problem you would run into is that copyright almost always applies to derivative works as well as the original. μηδείς (talk) 01:55, 13 April 2016 (UTC)


 * The book's name is "Never Be Lied To Again" by David Lieberman. As I said before, not for commercial purposes. --إلياس الجزائري (talk) 06:48, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
 * "Copyright" is so-named because it is a right to stop others from copying. In creating a faithful translation, you would be making something similar enough (i.e. a close enough derivative work) as to infringe the copyright.
 * Whether you are doing it for commercial purposes or not comes only into whether your act of infringement is excused in the eyes of the law (i.e. whether you have a defence). In most countries there is something called fair use or fair dealing that allows certain types of personal copying for domestic purposes - e.g. if you do the translation and show it to your family, you are more likely to be okay, than if you were posting it on the internet. As Bugs pointed out, sharing it with friends is where you are more likely to run into trouble. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 10:01, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Also, plaintiff's in copyright cases (as in all tort cases) need to show damages for which they are claiming you owe them. They don't need to demonstrate that you made money by violating their copyright, they only need to demonstrate you prevented them from making the money they were due.  Distributing free copies of a work that should be being paid for would represent real damages.  -- Jayron 32 11:56, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
 * In many jurisdictions, copyright holders can elect to receive statutory damages, which does not require them to prove that any actual financial loss occurred. Dragons flight (talk) 12:05, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
 * We do not offer legal advice.--WaltCip (talk) 20:16, 15 April 2016 (UTC)