NEWS Author helps Russian pirate to translate book


A US author has taken the unusual step of helping an Internet user who began pirating his work to translate his book into Russian.


Peter Mountford, whose debut novel A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism was published in April 2011, revealed the news in a self-published article in the November edition of Te Atlantic.


He said he noticed people discussing his book on the translation website wordreference.com in March this year. One user called AlexanderIII, based in Moscow, repeatedly asked other users to explain certain English phrases in the book. Aſter thinking someone was poised to publish his book in Russia, Mountford realised that no-one had bought the rights to it in the country and that “AlexanderIII must be translating it for some kind of book-pirating outfit”.


AlexanderIII appeared to stop translating the book before Mountford sent him a message in July offering to help. Within two weeks AlexanderIII had replied to Mountford, who then began assisting the unknown translator.


According to Te Guardian, which spoke to Mountford, the author offered help because no-one had bought the rights in Russia in more than a year and he wanted to promote the novel there. He believed the lack of interest from publishers partly stemmed from the “robust” black market for ebooks in the country.


Te US government’s 2012 Special 301 Report listed the book publishing industry in Russia as one that continues to face “serious challenges with respect to IPR enforcement”. Te report said that although


Nominet responds to .uk criticism its plans for introducing


British registry Nominet has responded to criticism that


shorter .uk web addresses will require existing registrants to fight costly auctions to secure domains.


Speaking to TB&I at an event in London, senior legal counsel Nick Wenban-Smith said he recognised the concerns but believed auctions would be an equitable solution when more than one party has rights to a domain.


Te registry wants to allow businesses to register second-level domains such as example.uk for the first time, rather than just those with suffixes such as .co.uk. Nominet wants the direct.uk scheme to supplement, not replace, its existing offerings.


There have been some complaints about the plans, especially in a paper entitled Introduction of .uk—Don’t Do It! by Edwin Hayward, a domain industry specialist. One of his criticisms is that existing registrants will not automatically obtain their


Russia has made “important” progress to improve IPR protection and enforcement, “significant concerns remain, particularly with respect to piracy over the Internet”.


AlexanderIII, whose identity is still unknown to Mountford, finished translating the author’s book in November, according to reports. Te Russian rights to the book remain unsold.


Mountford’s approach contrasts that of author Terry Goodkind, who exposed a man on his Facebook page in July for allegedly pirating his best-selling novel, Te First Confessor. Goodkind released the image and details of the man, before almost all the piracy links were apparently deleted. 


corresponding domain under .uk, potentially leading to “expensive” auctions between two or more parties.


Wenban-Smith, who was in London with other Nominet representatives to promote the direct.uk consultation period, said: “In our experience—for example when launching shorter .uk addresses last year—it is the fairest way to determine the outcome when two or more parties with legitimate conflicting rights have applied for the same domain.”


Hayward has said this comparison to the October 2011 auctions was misleading because there were “no existing registrants to consider during the auction”. The domains had been held back because of reasons.


technical and policy


But Wenban-Smith said it was “unlikely that all trademarks will pass the criteria required to qualify for new domains in the sunrise, just as it is unlikely that all companies will want the identical domain in .uk that they hold in .co.uk”.


He stressed that under the current proposals, Nominet will prioritise trademarks that


are


enforceable in the UK and “demonstrate appropriate prior usage”.


“Ten those with the equivalent address within the existing .uk namespace, and then those with unregistered rights (for example, those who have the matching company name listed but no trademarks) would be eligible to apply.”


In his 26-page paper, Hayward also criticised the proposed “significantly increased” £20 wholesale price of .uk domains. Te current registry fee for a one-year .co.uk domain is £4.20.


At the event in London, Nominet director of


operations Eleanor Bradley told TB&I that there was demand for new domains incorporating more stringent security features than existing sites. Adding these features, such as daily malware scanning, would increase costs, she said.


The consultation period is open until January 7, 2013. 


8


Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 1, Issue 4


www.worldipreview.com


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