Author Explains The Joy Of Helping Russian 'Pirate' Translate His Book

from the want-to-be-read dept

It was about five years ago that we first wrote about best selling author Paulo Coelho revealing that he was eagerly helping create pirate foreign translations of his books, and noting that sales of legitimate copies always seemed to increase whenever he did this -- initially pretending to be someone else, under the username "pirate coelho." The first time this happened was in Russia, where the Russian translation resulted in his books -- which had almost no market previously -- suddenly shot up into huge sales (from less than 1,000 to over 100,000). While he's seen similar success stories elsewhere, it really seems like the Russian ebook market is an interesting one to observe.

A bunch of you sent in a more recent story, written by author Peter Mountford, who published his first novel, A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism, in the spring of 2011. Not surprisingly, he had set up a Google alert about the book to see what people were saying about it. Eventually it led him to an online forum where a person in Russia kept asking for help translating key words and phrases -- sometimes with comic attempts to decipher idioms:

At one point, he indicated that he was struggling with “white-liberal guilt.” (Me too!, I wanted to chime in.) He postulated that white liberal guilt meant: “the guilt for consuming white substance (cocaine).”

At at first he assumed that it was a Russian speaker trying to understand the book, but when another forum member suggested the Russian guy (going by the name AlexanderIII) just enjoy the book without trying to understand every last word, AlexanderIII admitted that he was working for a publisher doing a translation. Mountford went through a range of emotions:

Holy crap, I thought, my book is going to be published in Russia! Then I remembered that no Russian publisher had acquired the rights, and realized that AlexanderIII must be translating it for some kind of book-pirating outfit.

In the U.S., book piracy is a growing problem. But Russia, I learned, has a remarkably mature black market for literature—particularly for ebooks, no doubt in part because the overhead is so low. Pirated books reportedly compose up to 90 percent of Russian ebook downloads. According to Rospechat, the state agency that regulates mass media, Russians have access to more than 100,000 pirated titles and just 60,000 legitimate titles, with illegal downloads costing legitimate vendors several billion rubles a year.

Of course, I wish one of Russia’s two major ebook publishers had given me a couple thousand dollars for the rights, but neither did. Like many novelists I know, I’m just happy to have people reading my work, whether they’re paying me for it or not. I’m also heartened that Russians care enough about reading to sustain a robust literary black market. In the U.S., you get the feeling that hardly anyone is creating pirated ebooks because—well, who’d buy such a thing?

He then became a voyeur of the translation attempt, debating whether or not to chime in on particularly bizarre guesses, though he's impressed that the rest of the community seemed to do a pretty good job. He actually expresses disappointment that AlexanderIII -- well before finishing the book -- moved on to another book:

In late March, a couple weeks into his work, AlexanderIII unceremoniously dropped my novel and began translating Dennis Lehane’s Gone, Baby, Gone. (A sample query: “Could you please help me out with a difficulty ... ‘you are on fucking angel dust.’ ”) I was shattered. Even my pirate translator had lost interest in my book. But in early July, Google Alerts informed me that AlexanderIII had dropped Lehane and returned to the good stuff.

Eventually he did reach out to AlexanderIII and offered help wherever needed. At first, as Mountford feared, AlexanderIII disappeared, but he did eventually email. It's unclear if Mountford then did assist AlexanderIII very much, but what's fascinating is that Mountford seems equally interested in understanding AlexanderIII's experience of puzzling his way through the book:

At one point in the novel, I describe my protagonist’s mother as having “a sentiment born of her cloying, overly maternal side.” AlexanderIII hypothesized that I had meant “a sentiment born of her memory about hardships of solitary life.” Though completely off base, he was drilling toward the character’s psychological core. I loved that. He misread the text, but he was wrestling with the sentences, much as I had wrestled with them originally.

The whole story is interesting, and it'll be worth seeing if Mountford follows it up with additional reporting on AlexanderIII or other translations in other countries.

Filed Under: copyright, ebooks, peter mountford, piracy, russia

Liability For Users May Be Worldwide Russian Roulette For Online Services

from the lowest-common-denominator dept

The Russian social network vKontakte has been held liable in a copyright case for the second time this year. Music label Gala successfully claimed damages again, because vKontakte's users are able to (and do) upload its music and videos to the social network.

This series of court cases may have prompted Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook to speak to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about copyright laws on a recent trip. It is no secret that people do upload a lot of music videos to Facebook as well, so Facebook -- or any social media service for that matter -- could easily become the next litigation target in Russia.

Music recommendations via social networks have an important function in the modern music industry, because they are great tools for artists' marketing and consumers' awareness of new music alike. The question is then, whether the rest of the social media landscape and the culture of sharing and recommending have anything to worry about, following the two rulings from Russia. After all, Russia is a huge market, so global services may be pushed to regulate by code the types of content that is uploaded or linked to. Strict laws in one country can have effects on the way a service operates in another country.

Although details on Russian information law regarding intermediary liability and copyright exemptions are a little sketchy when one cannot read Russian, there does not seem to be a Russian equivalent of the safe harbor provisions in the US DMCA or the EU E-Commerce Directive. Russian services seem to so far have relied on a framework of laws, such as an exception in the fairly new Russian Federation Civil Code (Part IV, 2008), which allows for private copying and a subsequent levy on computers or digital media carriers, and the fact that initiator should be liable for copyright infringements, not the intermediary.

The vKontakte website looks and feels pretty much exactly like Facebook, but there's a key difference: Users are able to search all uploaded media on the social network, not just in their circle of friends. Although all sorts of content is accessible on Facebook, it has taken care to make content available mainly within groups of friends or when artists publish the works themselves on their own pages. The former likely falls under private copying exemptions, or fair use in the US, whereas the latter is simply a great promotion.

The same cannot be said for service like YouTube and Twitter. Most content uploaded or linked to by their users is searchable and publicly accessible. YouTube, of course, has the technical capacity to filter a portion of copyright protected works. However, no further special care is taken to keep the circulation of content limited. With this in mind, it is interesting to note the reaction by IFPI, the international arm of the RIAA, who celebrate this second ruling:

"The IFPI suggests that the 11 licensed digital music services in Russia have 'not developed to their full potential' because of the easy availability of free music on vKontakte. But rather than simply restricting its upload and search capabilities, the real question is whether, like Baidu in China, vKontakte can become a licensed partner for the music industry rather than a foe for the long term."

IFPI tries to push the social network to purchase licenses for the works their users are sharing on its service. This is made possible by the absence of rules exempting intermediaries, such as social networks, from liability for the actions of their users. Much can be said about the negligence with which vKontakte made uploaded content available to its whole user base. However, when comparing vKontakte to the services of Twitter and YouTube, it suddenly becomes apparent that any user-generated content service that operates worldwide may well be playing Russian roulette with their own liability for their users actions.

This is not to say that services should refrain from buying licenses from rights holders. However, in order not to start a technical race to the bottom, where user-generated content services adhere to the strictest copyright law the world has to offer (with all its negative consequences) in their aim to expand into new territory quicker than competitors, some reflection is needed on the global norms regulating intermediaries. Cases such as this one should ideally trigger new discussions and considerations at the international level. Maybe Zuckerberg can hold his next talk about global copyright at venues such as at the WIPO or the WTO.

Filed Under: file sharing, russia, secondary liability
Companies: facebook, vkontakte

DailyDirt: Diamonds, Diamonds Everywhere

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Creating artificial diamonds could lead to some really interesting semiconductor materials -- or even some insanely hard touchscreen displays (no more scratches!). Fortunately, synthesizing diamond-like materials is getting cheaper and easier, but at the same time, we've also discovered significantly large diamond deposits. But will diamonds still be included in engagement rings when the market prices plummet? Aluminum used to be the most expensive metal in the world... but it's no longer as highly regarded as it once was. Here are just a few links on one of our favorite allotropes of carbon.

• Forget OxiClean. The "power of diamonds" can help clean away tough stains in every laundry load. Nanodiamond particles in laundry detergents can dislodge dirt from fabrics without using hot water -- saving energy and adding some sparkle. [url]
• There's a recently de-classified deposit of impact diamonds in Russia -- and it's so big that it's estimated that this resource could serve the world's diamond needs for 3,000 years. These impact diamonds are twice as hard as traditional gemstones because they're formed when a carbon-rich meteor collides with the earth and the resulting explosion creates this unique material. [url]
• Diamonds aren't as rare as most people think they are -- if you're willing (or able) to travel a few thousand light years, you can find a whole planet made of diamond. A carbon-rich planet that is probably crystalline (and hence diamond-like) orbits the pulsar J1719-1438, and it's the most dense planet seen so far. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: allotrope, carbon, diamonds, impact diamonds, laundry, nanodiamond, oxiclean, planet, russia

Russia (Yes, The Country) Looking To Enter The Tablet Market

from the new-state-sponsored-tablet-or-cross-dresser's-quarters dept

The world of tablet computing is highly competitive and everyone's looking to get in on the action. The latest entrant has something going for it that its closest competitors can't touch: the weight of one the most powerful governments in the world.

Russia, yes that Russia, is looking to produce its own tablet, unfortunately titled the "RuPad." It should do well, considering it should be able to corner every market (but the black one) and become the "must have" tablet for both Russian government employees and the general public alike. There's nothing like the implicit threat of general statist unpleasantness to move a few thousand units.

Unlike Android tablets elsewhere in the world, the RuPad will provide users with unprecedented privacy, protecting their info from rogue capitalists like Google:

"The operating system has all the functional capabilities of the Android OS, but does not contain the covert functions of sending private user data to Google headquarters," Andrey Starikovsky, the general director of the university-based company behind the tablet, told Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

So, rather than being subjected to targeted personal ads and personally-tailored MPAA-approved search results, Russian citizens will have their personal data harvested by an entity with a long history of disappearing people away into labor camps for little more than looking at the government the wrong way. (I know, I know. That was the old way. The new, friendly Russia just imprisons people for singing partly-naked protest songs and censors the hell out of the web.)

On the bright side, Russians won't have to waste much time comparison shopping or camping out overnight for the latest iThing. I'm sure the RuPad will come highly recommended by salespeople wishing to keep their jobs and family members intact.

The expected retail price isn't exactly consumer-friendly (15,000 rubles/$460), but when you've got a powerful built-in market for your product, competitive prices aren't really a concern.

Developers at the ministry's Central Scientific Research Institute said their main client is—and will probably always be—the state and its top brass. "The military version will be shock- and water-proof," Russian media quoted production unit director Andrei Starikovsky as telling Rogozin at the presentation. 

Like the GLONASS satelitte system before it, the RuPad appears to be another state project that results in something usable by the general public. But for it to be Mother Russia-approved, the Android system has to be purged of its innate data harvesting properties. This homegrown Android version may have a chance for some stress testing as soon as it goes live, as Project Manager Dmitry Maikhailov has boldy invited hackers to punch holes in the system.

"They are not afraid of Google or the US government stealing things per se. They are afraid of leaks in general," the operating system's project manager Dmitry Mikhailov told AFP. "There is nothing like this operating system on the market. It is hack-proof," Mikhailov claimed. "There are people who are clamouring for this."

Despite insistence that this is a "military-first" project, pre-orders have already begun piling up, at least according to the manufacturer. And maybe there is a crowd of wealthier Russians looking to get their hands on some retail-ready military hardware. It worked for the Humvee. Why not a "shockproof, waterproof, hackerproof" tablet that runs a proprietary version of Android? (Currently sporting the name "RoMOS," which looks to be another possible name for the tablet itself.) 

One would imagine the government/military version would come with all needed software pre-loaded, but the average consumer might need to do a bit of rooting in order to install anything that isn't Russia-approved. Google has been kicked to the curb app-wise, as well:

"Some of the components will be imported, and the assembly will be carried out by a Russian-based leading defense institute. We excluded Google Market from it for safety reasons,” said Starikovsky.

There's no firm release date ("before the end of 2012") on the RuPad/RoMOS/ANTiGoogle, but considering the operating system has been in development for "over five years," it would seem like "any day now" would be a good bet. Of course, it's headed to the military and top government officials first, so it could be several more months before the specs make it out into the wild. Until the illustrious debut of the People's Tablet, feast your eyes on the Glorious Past of Russian Komputing!

Filed Under: computers, russia, tablets

Garry Kasparov Was Arrested Outside Of Pussy Riot Courthouse

from the kings-and-pawns dept

We had just covered the shameful Russian court ruling that sentenced members of the punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison over their political music/speech at an Orthodox church. Aside from being a simply horrific example of the Russian government coming down hard against free political speech, this move was also curious in that it essentially took a moderately-known punk band and turned them into The West's next great martyrs. Several high profile musical artists have already kept the story going, including Madonna, Bjork, and Paul McCartney, in the tradition of The Streisand Effect.

And now, as is being reported in several places, we learn that famed chess champion Garry Kasparov's name can be added to the list of high-profile figures involved. He details in The Wall Street Journal his own arrest outside of the courthouse the day of Pussy Riot's sentencing. It should be noted that Kasparov is the leader of the United Civil Front in Russia and Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation here in The States, and that he's been a critic of Vladimir Putin in the past, but none of that appears to excuse his arrest.

The crowds outside the court building made entry nearly impossible, so I stood in a doorway and took questions from journalists. Suddenly, I was dragged away by a group of police—in fact carried away with one policeman on each arm and leg.

The men refused to tell me why I was being arrested and shoved me into a police van. When I got up to again ask why I had been detained, things turned violent. I was restrained, choked and struck several times by a group of officers before being driven to the police station with dozens of other protesters. After several hours I was released, but not before they told me I was being criminally investigated for assaulting a police officer who claimed I had bitten him.

Taking Kasparov at his word, it would appear as though the Russian government decided to silence more political speech against the silencing of political speech. This is something that can easily spiral out of control, because, while reports are that Russia in general isn't particularly supportive of what Pussy Riot did, they are far more vehemently against how the Russian government responded. As The Economist notes, recent polling shows the Russian people's compartmentalized views:

Although recent polling by the Levada Centre shows that many question the court’s objectivity and see the hand of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin in the prosecution, fewer are ready to support Pussy Riot: 51% held negative or hostile views toward the group’s actions, another 20% were neutral or indifferent.

Negative views of Pussy Riot or not, when you begin adding more arrests against speech, particularly of high profile people like Garry Kasparov, the Russian government risks losing the advantage of that ambivalence entirely and becoming the chief bad guy in this entire story (if they aren't already). Unfortunately, from Kasparov's viewpoint inside of Russia, not enough has been done diplomatically from The West as of yet.

Such a brazen step should raise alarms, but the leaders of the Free World are clearly capable of sleeping through any wake-up call. A spokesman for the Obama administration called the sentence "disproportionate," as if the length of the prison term were the only problem with open repression of political speech.

If officials at the U.S. State Department are as "seriously concerned" about free speech in Russia as they say, I suggest they drop their opposition to the Magnitsky Act pending in the Senate. That legislation would bring financial and travel sanctions against the functionaries who enact the Kremlin's agenda of repression. Hit them where it hurts and expose them as the thugs that they are. Those who wish to help should pressure their representatives to pass such measures. If you live in a democracy you have a voice. Do not waste it.

Mike has written in reference to the Magnitsky Act before, but I think it goes without saying that if America wants to be a nation that stands on Free Speech principles, it needs to do so consistently, regardless of any touchy diplomatic issues that may be present. There is simply no excuse for the United States not to come out strongly against what has happened to Pussy Riot and Kasparov. As a country founded on Free Speech principles, we are obligated to uphold those values across diplomatic lines.

Filed Under: free speech, garry kasparov, pussy riot, russia

The Same Day Russia Sentences Pussy Riot, It Condemns The UK Over Julian Assange

from the there-is-no-consistency-in-national-politics dept

Someone suggested to me recently that Pussy Riot is to Russia what Julian Assange is to the US. The parallels are not exact -- especially given the accusations that were leveled in Sweden against Assange are not, on their face, political (and those who insist they know what happened between Assange and the two accusers should admit they have no idea what really happened, because only those three individuals truly do). That said, it does seem clear that there is a separate factor at work in the Assange mess, and it involves significant political pressure from the US, who it has been claimed have a sealed indictment ready for Assange, who for a variety of reasons they feel will be easier to get from the Swedes than the Brits.

So it seems positively bizarre that on the very same day that Pussy Riot was sentenced to jail, Russia warned the UK against "violating fundamental diplomatic principles" in its pursuit of Assange to ship him off to Sweden. Honestly, if you had to pick one of those two cases to be sympathetic to, it seems that the Pussy Riot case is a much more clear-cut one of absolutely egregious behavior on the part of a prosecution. For Russia to complain about the treatment of Assange -- on the very day that Pussy Riot was found guilty and sentenced -- seems especially rich.

Both cases may involve significant levels of political tinkering against those who have embarrassed certain governments, but it's also pretty clearly taken away any moral high ground for the countries involved in speaking out against one another.

Filed Under: diplomacy, extradition, free speech, julian assange, pussy riot, russia, uk, us

Russia Confirms To The World That It's Not A Fan Of Free Speech: Pussy Riot Gets Two Years In Jail

from the pussy-riot-in-jail dept

Hopefully, many of you have been following the legal fight in Russia over the band/collective Pussy Riot, who performed an anti-Putin song inside a key Moscow cathedral. If so, then you know that, today, the band was sentenced to two years in jail. The sentence could have been worse, but just the fact that they're being punished, at all, for expressing their views is troubling enough. The three women have already been in jail since March, while the case moved forward. At the beginning, it was assumed that they would end up with jail sentences, but there had been some hope that the Russian judiciary would recognize the general horror of the rest of the world at the case and perhaps back down. The women are planning to appeal, so this isn't over yet.

Either way, the verdict is unfortunate in many ways. We talk about free speech issues all the time around here, and we recognize that other countries don't always view freedom of speech as being as central or as important as the US does. That said, the whole idea that a band would end up in jail over political speech should be distressing and problematic to anyone with a developed sense of "right" and "wrong." Some will say this isn't surprising, or that this is the way that some countries operate, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still be offended by the decision on principle.

Filed Under: free speech, protests, pussy riot, russia, vladimir putin

Not Long After Passing Censorship Legislation, Russian Government Censors All of LiveJournal

from the in-soviet-russia,-speech-censors-you dept

Not too long ago, despite the protests of several sites, Russia passed its own little version of SOPA. It did so for the typical "for the children" reasoning. Even though this new censorship power is only a couple of weeks old, the Russia government wasted no time in taking advantage of it. In what could only conceivably be an act of celebration, perhaps after a vodka binge, the government decided to block all of LiveJournal.

It began by blocking the entirety of LiveJournal, the country’s largest blogging community, to the city of Yaroslavl and part of surrounding Moscow from July 18 to 20.

Wait. All of LiveJournal? Why? What could possibly go through the minds of these government officials that would cause them to block an entire network of blogs, most of which were not doing anything illegal?

On July 18, local law enforcement informed a Yaroslavl court about pat-index, a neo-Nazi blog it had found on LiveJournal during a sweep. The blog’s hateful message violates Russian federal laws against extremism. Because of Bill 89417-6, the court now has the power to stamp it out completely and immediately.

The court ordered Internet provider Netis Telekom to block, among other illegal sites, this blog’s IP. The court order shows the IP to be blocked as 208.93.0.128.

You see, the court order demanded the blockage based on the IP of the blog in question. What could possibly go wrong with such a simple open and shut use of such an easy to use identification source? Oh, right. All of LiveJournal uses the same IP address. So when the government officials got their court order to block those few illegal blogs, they took out just a few extra. Kind of reminds me of when Homeland Security, here in the US, took out over 84,000 websites in a similar action.

This reminds me of the debates around SOPA. You know, when we and other people, who actually understand the dangers of the legislation, warned repeatedly that such legislation would result in collateral damage of this nature. This collateral damage is also part of the reason why this Russian bill was protested. Legitimate speech was censored for several days. That is not acceptable. It should be a wake up call to the legislators that passed the bill. Unfortunately, too many people in power are unwilling to relinquish the ability to censor speech once they have it. Hopefully, the citizens of Russia will take note of this unacceptable abuse of power and demand the law be repealed.

Filed Under: censorship, collateral damage, for the children, free speech, russia, sopa
Companies: livejournal

Russia And China Both Want To 'Protect Children'; Both Want To Do It By Increasing Censorship

from the what-about-protecting-rights? dept

As expected, Russia has passed a law that will allow Web sites to be blacklisted, ostensibly to "protect children". According to this AFP report, the very vague "harmful information" category has been narrowed somewhat, but future threats remain:

Russian newspapers said Wednesday the final version has specified a previously broad term of "harmful information", saying only child pornography, suicide how-to instructions and drugs propaganda can lead to website closure without a trial.

However, an expert on Russia's security services, Andrei Soldatov, said the bill would lead to creation of a mechanism for blocking foreign sites for the first time by forcing Internet providers to install special equipment.

As the UK experience shows, once the technology is in place to block child pornography, say, the calls to deploy it for things like alleged copyright infringement become more insistent.

China, of course, already exercises pretty tight control over all forms of media, but it seems it wants to lock down online activity even more:

China's broadcasting and Internet regulators have told Internet video providers that they must prescreen all programs before making them available, tightening state censorship of increasingly popular online drama series and mini-movies.

Prescreening all uploaded videos might seem a tall order, but it's already going on with some services:

A woman working in the public relations office for Youku, China's most popular online video provider, said Wednesday the new decree had little impact on the company because Youku already has hundreds of prescreeners who examine all content uploaded to the site.

You can probably guess what justification China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) is using for this move:

SARFT said this week in a statement on its website that the rule is in response to the rapid growth in online video programs, some of which it said contain vulgar content, excessive violence or pornography. It said the rule would protect younger people and promote high-quality online programs.

It's so nice to know that governments everywhere are united by this desire to protect children; pity they seem equally united in not caring about the erosion of people's rights through the ever-deepening censorship they apply as a result.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+

Filed Under: blacklist, censorship, china, russia, sarft