Unauthorised Translations Of The Satoru Iwata Book "Will Be Subject To Criminal Charges"

Missed opportunity to say "Please understand"

I look forward to someday reading an official translation of the book.

This would be the most badass thing to go to jail for

@NorseGamerTommy Please buy the book 'Directly' from us

They won't do anything to people translating for free.

Wow, just like all books!

Please understand.

@Trajan

Yes they will - it is breach of copyright and will affect future sales when they eventually translate the book..

@Steve999red Good luck prosecuting random blogger.

I’m not too sure about the criminal laws in Japan but good luck trying to press charges for something like that in Australia. If the book gets translated, it is up to the company to pursue this matter civilly since there is nothing criminal about translating something.

Also good luck trying to get your country police to deal with any international criminal offences, only at the most severe scenario will they apply for a warrant to make an international arrest.

So unless Japan’s law is drastically different, I see that post either to be misinformed or a feeble attempt at scaring people.

Please understand...

Me: Why would Iwata write a book called "Will Be Subject To Criminal Charges"?

Ohhhhhh!

Seems fair enough. If they decide to not release an official translation I hope they can maybe look the other way if fans decide to make one.

There were unofficial English translations of most of the Witcher books available online for quite a few years, I read them before they started releasing the rest of the series in English. I think there was a point were there was some uncertainty if they would even get official English releases. They were decent enough and did the job until the official releases came around.

@Trajan as long as it's just translated, of course they won't. The warning clearly says "for public distribution".

maybe they should of done that instead of doing it in one language, thats thier own fault.

its getting translated alright and there's nothing they can do about that.

(Insert angry moral-relativistic rant about how piracy and copyright violation aren't just ethical, but are in fact everyone's right, and not re-appropriating copyright works would be unethical, because 'information wants to be free' here.)

el oh el. Good luck. I’m sure the Reddit detectives are already cherry picking google translations in order to prove some insane theory about broken joycons or lost pokedexes. The internet gonna internet.

1. Translate book.
2. Connect to VPN
3. Upload file
4. Distribute links
5. Watch it spread

I love how people think they’re entitled to everything.

Well alright, but hopefully this means you'll actually make a product out of this, and not two or three years from now, since you already know there is an audience

@ballistic90 Thank you, that gave me a good laugh this morning.

@maruse yeah people wanting to read one of their icons life stories is sooooo ENTITLED it’s disgusting don’t they realise they are PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Sooner we can banish all in caps into room 101 the better - self righteous pompous misuse and overuse of these words are PROBLEMATIC

@Stocksy You’ve got everything I said wrong.
People justifying illegal translations and complaining when the publisher, rightfully, threatens with legal action is what prompted my comment.
They’re working to publish the book outside Japan. If you can’t wait, it’s your problem.
And in general terms, not related directly to this specific case, I still think that people DO feel entitled about EVERYTHING.

Even if I was able to translate Haruki Murakami's work into English, I wouldn't. Fortunately, they're so good that I wouldn't have to bother anyway; they're published in English as well.

@Trajan Yeah that's the thing about this, the type of people who translate this kind of stuff that puts it on the internet are the same type of people who put things on piracy sites. It's like expecting companies to prosecute all those people, they can't because they have no idea who they are. It is hard to take Mr. X to court.

@maruse I'm not sure if it's depressing or horrifying that the default opinion seems to be to laugh at any one saying they are protecting their property because the idea of even being able to do so is now seen as absurd, and that the ability to steal and copy means that it's inevitability should simply be accepted, and property doesn't actually exist in our digital global commune.

I'm not sure at what point China's view of property became the global view of property. But I know that's essentially a worst case scenario.

@jedisquidward Yeah to me that is why I would have to side with anyone who puts out an unofficial translation for now. This is exactly like the Mother 3 situation, Nintendo knows how Earthbound fans desperately want to play that game in the west but it has a lot of text and it has never been officially translated. Luckily some fans translated it and being able to download that made it so I was able to actually play and enjoy that game. Would I have bought it if it was officially released? Definitely, but then again I would still be waiting for that game with absolutely no announcements or plans of it releasing from Nintendo like that.

To me this is a classic case of if they want me to buy it they need to be selling it. If they can't be bothered to translate it themselves and offer me a product that I can buy and actually be able to read then I guess I will have to settle for the alternative. The way I look at it is that it's hard for them to lose any money on a product they apparently have no intention of selling. This is a classic "give the people what they want" situation that has always ruled media, if an official source won't give the people what they want someone else will fill that void.

Grrrrr how dare they want to actually profit over the work they did to write the book, and then translate it in different languages.

@Anri02 If they want to do that I am willing to buy, but until they actually release it complaining about losing money on something that doesn't exist is just ridiculous. It can't be that hard to get someone to translate a book and release it on Amazon, especially if you are a big corporation. It's hard to lose money on something you aren't selling.

@JayJ How dare they not translate to multiple languages immediately. It’s almost like they think translations take time or something?

@Anri02 It shouldn't take years to translate a modern book from Japanese to English. If some random dude on the internet can translate it without taking forever I am pretty sure it isn't some impossible task that should take forever with no release date in sight.

@JayJ Years? The book came out like a week ago

@Anri02 I know and it's not like I plan to pirate this book but I just think Nintendo needs to make some sort of announcement for an English translation before they start complaining about fans wanting their own translations.

@JayJ Nintendo? They're not the publishers.

Satoru Iwata - genius programmer and sympathetic corporate president. I still miss his Nintendo Direct videos.

I'm hoping for an official translation of the book. I'm sure it is an interesting read.

@Snow-Dust
Worst case if caught on foreign countries you could be forbidden from entering Japan, so may or may not be the best scenario for professional Japanese translators.

Although rough fan translations is nothing to be fussed about. But again, why not just wait for the official one?