Plagiarism and other Thread poster: Smitherson
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Dear colleagues,
Unfortunately I have to inform you about a potential case of plagiarism. I, together with other translators, were hired by a german agency to translate an extensive text last year. We carried out the translation and delivered on time.(I have to say that the person who was suppose to manage the team, i.e the outsourcer, dissapeared during the whole process, just until the day of the delivery, so we had no support whatsoever). After having sent the tran... See more Dear colleagues,
Unfortunately I have to inform you about a potential case of plagiarism. I, together with other translators, were hired by a german agency to translate an extensive text last year. We carried out the translation and delivered on time.(I have to say that the person who was suppose to manage the team, i.e the outsourcer, dissapeared during the whole process, just until the day of the delivery, so we had no support whatsoever). After having sent the translation, the outsourcer said that he was unable pay us as he had been informed by his end-client that the translations were "unusable", ...(although we didn't receive any corrections or any further explanations, they didn't say what was wrong..) and that he wouldn't pay the oursourcer .Some of us issued demands for payments against our outsourcer and we basically need to decide whether to go a step forward on the process as the outsourcer will not pay.
But the surprise came when we found out that the text of our translations had been published. We decided to buy the text and to our surprise, we found out that they had used our translations. They had made really minor changes.
Would we be talking about a case of plagiarism?
What can we do?
All suggestions are welcomed.
Thank you very much in advance to everybody.
You can also contact me directly to [email protected] ▲ Collapse
| | | | ZZZZZZ (X)
Local time: 21:56
German to English
| Instead of "plagiarism" ... | Mar 7, 2007 |
... you might want to think along the lines of "copyright infringement". If the customer didn't ultimately buy your work, maybe the "workman" exception to copyrights wouldn't be applicable.
But it's basically a case of doing work for someone and not getting paid. That's the most direct angle to attack - you should get a lawyer and have him sue the agency for non-payment. The agency can bring in the ultimate customer as a party - or not, it's not your problem because you contracted w... See more ... you might want to think along the lines of "copyright infringement". If the customer didn't ultimately buy your work, maybe the "workman" exception to copyrights wouldn't be applicable.
But it's basically a case of doing work for someone and not getting paid. That's the most direct angle to attack - you should get a lawyer and have him sue the agency for non-payment. The agency can bring in the ultimate customer as a party - or not, it's not your problem because you contracted with the agency.
The statements above are just musings and certainly not legal advice. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Instead of or in addition to or whatever... | Mar 7, 2007 |
Reinicken wrote:
The statements above are just musings and certainly not legal advice.
Seconded, though. Get a lawyer and sue the hell out of them.
The story you've told us looks like a pretty brazen attempt to scam one's suppliers - like Reinicken wrote, you can sue the agency and it is up to them to sue their end client in turn.
Benjamin
P.S.: Whether the agency is involved in the scam or not, their whole behavior reeks of unprofessionalism. Don't forget to update the Blue Board...
| | | | | You can also use a collection agency | Mar 7, 2007 |
You'll have to pay a success fee, a percentage of what you were going to charge your client. But at least you get something: better 75% of something than 0% of the same thing. And your client will have learnt - hopefully - that not everyone is an idiot he/she can use at his/her will. If they don't succeed in collecting your money, you don't pay them (make sure of what their terms are though).
I have had to run after one specific client too many times, there was always a new excuse n... See more You'll have to pay a success fee, a percentage of what you were going to charge your client. But at least you get something: better 75% of something than 0% of the same thing. And your client will have learnt - hopefully - that not everyone is an idiot he/she can use at his/her will. If they don't succeed in collecting your money, you don't pay them (make sure of what their terms are though).
I have had to run after one specific client too many times, there was always a new excuse not to pay me. I finally told him I had contacted a collection agency and would use that collection agency if the payment was not on my bank account exactly 10 days later. They didn't send it on my bank account but asked if they could send it by Western Union, so I said they had to pay for the Western Union fee, which they did.
Then if that doesn't work, you may go with a lawyer. I wish you good luck and please keep us posted on your progress! And, yes, put what they deserve on the ProZ Blue Board... ▲ Collapse
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Ken Cox 
Local time: 21:56
German to English
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| with reinicken and techtranslate | Mar 7, 2007 |
This isn't plagiarism; it's breach of contract and brazen abuse. If the agency hasn't conveniently disbanded, you should definitely sue for non-payment and nail them to the wall on the Blue Board.
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