Accepting Donations in Translation Projects

[Darklord13]

Pheraps you could set up a donations button?

I'm sure that there are more people that are willing to give you a dollar or two for your hard work.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Tiagofvarela
Moved away from another thread, so somewhat out of context

[NhKPaNdA]

Pheraps you could set up a donations button?

I'm sure that there are more people that are willing to give you a dollar or two for your hard work.

 

The main problem about translation groups accepting donations is that if they do, then they are basically forced to come out with the patch no matter what due to obvious decency. Also people will annoy and constantly pest the translators to work faster using their donations as a reason to why they should go faster.

[Decay]

It also makes you a much bigger target for legal action, companies will be more aggressive with C&Ds if a group is accepting money, even if it's just donations. They don't want anyone earning money off of their work.

[Darklord13]

The main problem about translation groups accepting donations is that if they do, then they are basically forced to come out with the patch no matter what due to obvious decency. Also people will annoy and constantly pest the translators to work faster using their donations as a reason to why they should go faster.

It's called a donation,not a payment.A donation is,at it's core,wasted money that you give just because of the hard work they HAVE DONE not for what they will do.If anybody uses donations as a reason the dev should work more he's an asshole.

 

 

It also makes you a much bigger target for legal action, companies will be more aggressive with C&Ds if a group is accepting money, even if it's just donations. They don't want anyone earning money off of their work.

Oh,sry didn't realise that.But it still isn't their work,and the translators have worked REALLY hard for this.But i guess that's the best reason for the non-existent donation button.

[monkeysrumble]

It's called a donation,not a payment.A donation is,at it's core,wasted money that you give just because of the hard work they HAVE DONE not for what they will do.If anybody uses donations as a reason the dev should work more he's an asshole.

Just because a donation is given money doesn't mean people won't pester the translators. Yes they are assholes for doing so but that doesn't mean they won't do it, assholes are everywhere. I think adding money to fan translations is a bad idea because they are just non-profit translations for games. These people are doing it to translate something they enjoy on their spare time, adding money into the mix will just cause an unnecessary shitstorm.

 

Money should really only be handled by people doing official work. Fan translations should just stay as fan translations.

[RinXD]

um heres a bigger issue if they make money off of translating they can run into legal issues

[Nosebleed]

Basically because of legalities. Forget the morality of it, you're much more likely to run into the ground if you try to unofficially fund your project.

 

Also this notion that throwing money at a group of people will suddenly make things better is rather absurd.

Sure money motivates you, but that's literally just about it, it won't make your translation better nor does it guarantee you'll work faster.

 

As monkeysrumble said, let fan translations stay fan translations and only give money to people who are legally working on things.

 

Oh,sry didn't realise that.But it still isn't their work,and the translators have worked REALLY hard for this.

Try explaining how hard you worked in court and see where you'll end up

[Zalor]

I made a post a long time ago arguing that legally speaking accepting donations (or even paying translators so long as you release the translation for free) is perfectly legal. None the less, even if it's legal companies will still get butt hurt and come after you, and they will always have lawyers to defend them. 

 

Edit: Here is a link to the thread I was speaking about. My post is near the bottom of the first page. 

[Clephas]

Accepting donations openly opens up a legal can of worms that can include years in a federal penitentiary in the USA.  That isn't even mentioning that it can make it easier for companies to sue you.

 

Edit:  It really depends on if you get a federal prosecutor who decides to interpret the law narrowly or broadly.

 

Edit2: Also, some states have very strict laws about donations that can result in local prosecution as well.

[Ryechu]

JOAT has been offered donations before, but we refuse to take them for two reasons:

 

1)  We're not going to work any faster because you decided to give us money.  Hell, we might end up being slower cause that goes to our alcohol fund.

 

2)  If we were to use the donations to, let's say, pay somebody to translate a game we're working on.  Who gets paid what?  The editors do as much work as the translators in some situations, does that mean they should be paid on the same tier as the translators?  But without the translators we would have to use a machine, which results in a shoddy translation, so shouldn't they get paid more?  And what about me?  I spent a lot of time putting together all of the people we needed for this project, and keeping them somewhat motivated.  Surely that means I should get something out of this if money is involved.

 

It's a dramabomb waiting to happen.

 

Spoiler contains what we would do if a large sum of money becomes involved through method other than donation (do the math yourselves).

 

Translator gets 50%, no questions asked.  Our two editors each get 20%.  The remaining 10% is split among any remaining members.

 

Our reasoning for this is our business!

[RinXD]

Fan translations fall under the fair use act because no money or profit is made off it so its hard for companies to come after you all they can do is get a cease and desist order at that point you throw money into the mix and they could argue it was being paid for regardless if it's donations or not.

[Decay]

Fan translations fall under the fair use act because no money or profit is made off it so its hard for companies to come after you all they can do is get a cease and desist order at that point you throw money into the mix and they could argue it was being paid for regardless if it's donations or not.