Translation, Authorship, Copyright

Abstract

Current copyright law reserves for the author the exclusive right to copy and circulate a work, and this strictly limits the translator’s control of the translated text, resulting not merely in an economic disadvantage to the translator but in the continuing cultural marginality of translation. The history of copyright contains alternative definitions of translation that are useful in challenging its present legal status. Such definitions demonstrate that the development of an exclusive authorial copyright depended on an individualistic concept of original authorship that negates the translator’s work. But they also enable the formulation of a collective concept of authorship, one in which the translator is seen as a species of author and originality is redefined. This paper presents a genealogy of copyright that contests the cultural assumptions of the law and aims to foster legislative reform designed to further both the interests of translators and the practice of translation.

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