ばか！バカ！　馬鹿ー月！

Yeah so random encounter at work today. Someone who has a show on a regional broadcast network asked me to come on TV and do an interview. The topic, B-T.

Essentially she was picking up supplies to build some book shelves for kids, then we got talking about novels and what-not. She asked questions about how I got into reading etc etc because her latest series of shows are covering literature. She found it fascinating what we (you guys) do on here, how we (you guys) provide unreadable literature to other countries and languages. So she asked if I would come on her show and talk about it. I told her it was not likely due to us barely skirting the legal line, and putting us in the lime light could send a wave of unnecessary C&Ds our way. Though I did give her my contact info, and said I'd discuss it with the group (big boss).

That's the gist of it. Honestly, I think it would be a bad idea.

Discuss.

Not only do I think that it could be potentially dangerous but, also, BT doesn't really need any more people showing up saying "LOL I WANNA HLEP TRANLSATE pl0x" and then never show up again.

But that's the pessimistic side.

An optimistic viewpoint would be that some slight media attention could get us more of a spotlight, and possibly get us running at a faster rate as a result.

You decide.

Well, what's B-T's main goal? I can't speak for the whole community, just for myself, and why I came to B-T.

Spice and Wolf. Back in early 2008, I ran into Spice and Wolf, and met light novels. I wanted to read, but didn't have great Japanese skills at the time, and the only place I found the novels, was here. But now, because of the fame from the novels, publishing company Yen Press has picked up the series, and we can now buy English copies.

Don't tell me it had nothing to do with B-T. The Fan base would have been tiny for the novels had B-T not hosted them. How many other famous novels in Japan have anime adaptions, but no translated English novels? Spice and Wolf had two seasons of Anime, and a good 14 plus books. What about Haruhi? The fan base grew at B-T, and that came to the attention of the companies, and they decided to make a profit, and provide us with what we want.

So yes, it will bring extra attention to B-T, but what is our goal? Is it to host works for free here, or is it to bring the literature to English speakers? If it's the later, and other companies pick up English translations, maybe we'll see other great novels translated into English for us to read. Yes, maybe we will get letters from companies asking us to drop our works after they have published theirs, but again, what is our purpose? Isn't it to bring these novels to a more mainstream audience in English speaking and other countries?

However, Companies aren't all good, and the possibility of a lawsuit does stand I suppose, so this goes to the Big Boss, but I for one would want a copy of that news video. ^_^

one word: no.

I think it sounds interesting, but I must say that the potential C&Ds flying our way after the show sound really dangerous. Perhaps you could emphasize that we only host unlicensed works so that we won't sound so illegal? Other than the legal issues, I think it's quite a good idea, we've been moving pretty slowly of late and maybe some active new members could spice things up a little.

b0mb3r wrote:one word: no.

As he said - I think it would be a too great risk. As long as there are only (mostly) fans who visits here the risk isnt normaly that high to get a c&d but with attention, lawyers could think to try to make a dime from this...

Mmmm.... I can't really say that it will be alright to go there say what we do and hope nothing bad happens... but I think it will have a good and bad part to it... I mean, we are NOT stealing anything, we dropped and removed the licensed series and we help contribute so everyone can read other languages novels...

I'm from Spain and leaving Haruhi, I won't be reading any other light novel from japan in a loonnnngggg time... So I think we are not the good guys, because our work usually continue spreading even if it's licensed and we drop them... but we are no the bad guys because we are taking the job noone is doing for helping people know about novels from japan.

My first light novel was Haruhi, my second Spice & Wolf, and here I was translating it to Spanish because it will be licensed NEVER in Spain xD, you have my word.

Who would have thought it would ever come this far, well I don't think there is a problem if its a random show in a random channel in a random place and time, it would be a problem if it had a really large audience or its a widely known show, if its the first i don't think it would cause too much trouble if its the latest maybe you could suggest a program that is not based on baka or mentions baka, instead a program more focused on online translations and you could be presented like someone who does online translations without mention to the site

The latter would be a quite good incentive to people and companies to start buying and reading foreign books and begin translating them since that is the main focus of the site as stated before.

On another topic, you would become a star and maybe the first translator ever to appear on tv, you´re lucky

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It's no for me as well.

If I may be so ridiculous, maybe BT could one day become a real translation company?

^^ Lol if that happens I'm out, because I'm doing this for fun. I think its a good idea, but the company's risk is pretty bad. I say consider how well known BT is compared to her show. If its a lesser known show, go for it. Otherwise, you could do something that talks about what you do, but don't talk about the site in general. Keep anything about the site's operations in the confidential, and basically not try to bait the C&D letters.

You assume Baka would be a for-profit company.

As most of the posters before have said, this is really risky. What we're doing is already in a gray legal zone and worst case scenario, bringing more attention here could lead to this site's closure. I won't repeat what most of us here have said, but I agree that it's best to not gain more publicity, no matter how noble the intention.

I think it's a dangerous task... unless you can find a way to fully de-identify yourself, the website, and everybody else linked to it.

Seems like a potentially dangerous task. I don't know how the publishers and such will react to this. If we're unlucky, them may send unnecessary C&D letters. If this, however, could lead to an increasing interest in light novels, and that they will translate more, it could be a risk worth taking. But I don't know. Guess it's up to the Boss.