Abstract
A translation of a text of any kind is a derivative intellectual work. It involves a transformation of the original text, and therefore it is a right of the holder of that text to authorize (or not) its translation. This is covered in Article 8 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of September 9, 1886, and the same Convention tells us in Article 2.3 that “Translations, (…) and other alterations of a literary or artistic work shall be protected as original works without prejudice to the copyright in the original work (…)”. The rights ownership of the translator implies that the translation cannot be used without authorization from the translation copyright owner. These premises are jeopardized with the use of AI systems and the introduction of machine translation. The key issues raised by the new technologies are the ownership of rights over machine translations, and the possibility of using the results associated with translation as data for the improvement of Machine Translation algorithms.
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Notes
- 1.
Without prejudice to the copyright on the original work, the following are also the object of intellectual property: 1. Translations and adaptations (...) [translation of my own].
- 2.
The Next Rembrandt project was led by the agency J. Walter Thompson for the ING bank. It counted with Microsoft and the Technical University of Delft as technology partners, as well as with the Mauritshuis Museum and the Rembrandt House Museum. Using as a starting point the analysis of Rembrandt's work, in 2017 it was possible to create a new Rembrandt, the portrait of a man who replicates (not copies) the style of the painter.
- 3.
“El creador de hecho es el sistema, que no es un ente sino un objeto, y bajo los marcos normativos citados no puede considerarse autor. Sin embargo, también se deduce de la normativa que la autoría corresponde únicamente al creador de hecho de la obra” (The effective creator is the system, which is not an entity, but an object, and according the cited legal frameworks, it cannot be considered an author. Nevertheless, it can also be inferred from the legislation that the authorship solely corresponds to the factual creator of the work”—translation of my own).
- 4.
“En otras palabras, la IA es el autor en términos fácticos, pero ¿debería ser el autor en términos legales?” (In other words, AI is the author in factual terms, but should it be the author in legal terms?—translation of my own).
- 5.
“En el ámbito específico de las computer-generated works se ha señalado que los "sospechosos habituales" son cuatro: (1) el autor del programa; (2) el usuario del programa; (3) el programa y (4) ninguno”.
- 6.
“El titular (autor) de derechos de propiedad intelectual sobre un programa de ordenador no requiere ni merece una protección suplementaria, como autor al mismo tiempo del opus resultante de la aplicación del programa.”
- 7.
“En el mundo analógico, esto es como preguntarse si el derecho de autor debería atribuirse al fabricante de una pluma o al escritor. Entonces, ¿por qué podría tendría que ser problemática esta ambigüedad en el mundo digital? Tomemos el caso de Microsoft Word. Microsoft creó el programa informático Word, pero evidentemente no es titular de todos los trabajos realizados con ese software.”
- 8.
Sui generis is a Latin expression that means “special”. In Intellectual Property Law it is used to refer to the rights of those not covered by intellectual or artistic work authorship, such as a cinema producer, or the businessman behind the creation of a data base.
- 9.
In legal texts, de lege ferenda refers to matters that need to be regulated by laws in the future.
- 10.
Alternative to the introduction of new intellectual property rights in cases of uncertainty (my translation).
- 11.
In legal texts, lege data refers to what is already enforced by law.
- 12.
Note that this is what Gow (2007) advocates for. In his view, the creation and feeding of a TM over time would not be considered an investment. However, this is a field still to be regulated and different parties may view at this matter from different angles.
- 13.
Article 12 of the Spanish Intellectual property law establishes the same.
- 14.
https://tatoeba.org/en/ (Accessed 28 October 2021).
- 15.
1. The reproduction of works disseminated in the form of books or publications that are assimilated to these purposes by real decree, as well as phonograms, videograms or other sound, visual or audiovisual media, carried out by means of non-typographical technical apparatus or instruments, exclusively for private, non-professional or business use, without direct or indirect commercial purposes, in accordance with article 31(2) and (3), shall result in an equitable compensation … (my translation).
- 16.
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Acknowledgements
The present work has been carried out under the project “Derecho e inteligencia artificial: nuevos horizontes jurídicos de la personalidad y la responsabilidad robóticas”, IP. Margarita Castilla Barea, (PID2019-108669RB-100/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).
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Lacruz Mantecón, M.L. (2023). Authorship and Rights Ownership in the Machine Translation Era. In: Moniz, H., Parra Escartín, C. (eds) Towards Responsible Machine Translation. Machine Translation: Technologies and Applications, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14689-3_5
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