Condor Hero on the Kindle?

[UltraRob]

Has anyone noticed this:

http://www.amazon.com/Wuxia-on-the-K...ch_f_1_rsrsrs1

Someone called WenXue Publishing is selling the Condor Hero trilogy on the Kindle in English at $10 a piece (with 5 parts per novel) and claiming to be working with Louis Cha (Jin Yong) to do so. Why do I suspect if I check the fan translation done here it will match up exactly?

Rob

[forgot password]

I knew about this seller 1 month ago and too think that they may be selling the free translations done voluntarily by wuxia fans because only the Trilogy and Xiao Ao Jiang Hu are available, and the novels that are yet to have a complete translation such as Tian Long Ba Bu (ha-ha, lucky me!), Lu Ding Ji, or Lian Cheng Jue can't be found in their store. I doubt many reader would buy their products, but if this is true, it will still piss the voluntary translators off.

Can someone who has bought their translation post one excerpt or two here so everyone can compare with the free version please?

[UltraRob]

You don't need to buy it, you can look at the first couple pages of the book by previewing it using the free Kindle for PC. Unfortunately, it's locked down, so you can't copy-paste from it.

Rob

[Darkaos]

They are ninja.

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[Ren Wo Xing]

I have contacted Amazon. Will let you all know what the response is. This is bullshit and I won't let them get away from stealing our hard work and reselling it for profit; it violates both our rights and Mr. Jinyong's.

[Dirt]

I have contacted Amazon. Will let you all know what the response is. This is bullshit and I won't let them get away from stealing our hard work and reselling it for profit; it violates both our rights and Mr. Jinyong's.

Please let me know if threes anything I can do to help stop these people.

[Ren Wo Xing]

to: [email protected]
date: Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 4:52 PM
subject: Notice of 23 Copyright Violations on Kindle: Wenxue Publishing

Dear Amazon,

I was directed to this mailing address by one of your customer support representatives. I would like to notify you of multiple copyright thefts by one of your Kindle Store 'publishers', "Wenxue Publishing".

I am a translator and moderator at a Chinese martial arts novel forum at www.spcnet.tv/forums; my screen name handle is Ren Wo Xing. Along with many other translators, we have been, as a community, translating Chinese martial arts novels by several authors, most notably those of Jinyong/Louis Cha and Gulong, and freely posting them on www.spcnet.tv/forums, and also reposting them on a few other sites. This can be best described as a communal labor of love, to introduce Chinese language novels to English-language readers who are interested in the genre. This amounts to hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of labor across many translators, and hundreds of thousands of words translated. We have previously made attempts to contact these authors and inform them of our intent to translate and post their novels freely on our forums on a solely not-for-profit basis; to date, we have received no objections from them.

It has recently been brought to our attention that a company called "Wenxue Publishing" has engaged in wholesale theft of our translations and is now publishing them on Kindle, along with novels that were done by fellow translators that we know (on different forums, some still open, some now closed). A search for the store name on the Kindle store shows 23 results: Legend of Condor Heroes (books 1-5), Return of Condor Heroes (books 1-5), Heaven Sword and Dragon Scabbard (books 1-5), The Smiling Proud Wanderer (books 1-5), The Book and The Sword (books 1-2), and Sword of the Yueh Maiden. The original author of all of these books was Mr. Louis Cha/Jinyong. The first 20 books (Legend of Condor Heroes, Return of Condor Heroes, Heaven Sword and Dragon Scabbard, Smiling Proud Wanderer) appear to have been copied wholesale from the work done by our translators at www.spcnet.tv/forums. The other books (Book and the Sword, Sword of the Yueh Maiden) were originally done by other translators at different sites. In no case was any original work done by Wenxue Publishing.

By selling our translations on Kindle, Wenxue Publishing is infringing against the copyrights of the original Chinese author and directly committing copyright theft against the translators, myself included, who put in the painstaking time and effort to actually translate the original novels. We are therefore formally requesting that Amazon take action against Wenxue Publishing and remove all of the above-mentioned novels from the Kindle Store.

I would be happy to provide you with any further information that you might require regarding these copyright violations. You can contact me directly via this email address or at www.spcnet.tv/forums. Alternately, you can contact me at [deleted]; I am currently serving at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and this is my Malaysian cell phone number. If there are any documents which you need to physically mail to me, you can send it to the following address:

[Deleted]

I look forward to your speedy reply and thank you for your time.

[Deleted]
Translator
SPCNET Forum Moderator

[CFT]

If anyone can verify that it is plagiarised then we, the spcnet readership, can go to Amazon and give negative reviews - all 1 star - stating that the contents of the translation amount to copyright theft and include a link to the original translations.

[Single Whip]

I saw these books on kindle store as well and thought perhaps it was an official translation authorized by Jin Yong. Good thing I only downloaded the sample and didn't buy them (since I already have the condor trilogy free translations from this forum). I don't mind giving them a negative review if we know these were plagiarized work and Amazon didn't take them down.

[Single Whip]

I've checked several sections of this forum's HSDS translations and the Wen Xue's kindle version and they are exactly the same. The kindle one even still includes the editors' note in parenthesis that was put in by the forum's translators. For instance in one section the editors note said that the Xuan Ming divine palm was used to match previous translations. This was done because the translations were done by many translators in this forum in increments.

So no doubt, Wen Xue took the fan's translation work in whole and try to sell it as their own.

[athlonkmf]

to: [email protected]
date: Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 4:52 PM
subject: Notice of 23 Copyright Violations on Kindle: Wenxue Publishing

Dear Amazon,

I was directed to this mailing address by one of your customer support representatives. I would like to notify you of multiple copyright thefts by one of your Kindle Store 'publishers', "Wenxue Publishing".

I am a translator and moderator at a Chinese martial arts novel forum at www.spcnet.tv/forums; my screen name handle is Ren Wo Xing. Along with many other translators, we have been, as a community, translating Chinese martial arts novels by several authors, most notably those of Jinyong/Louis Cha and Gulong, and freely posting them on www.spcnet.tv/forums, and also reposting them on a few other sites. This can be best described as a communal labor of love, to introduce Chinese language novels to English-language readers who are interested in the genre. This amounts to hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of labor across many translators, and hundreds of thousands of words translated. We have previously made attempts to contact these authors and inform them of our intent to translate and post their novels freely on our forums on a solely not-for-profit basis; to date, we have received no objections from them.

It has recently been brought to our attention that a company called "Wenxue Publishing" has engaged in wholesale theft of our translations and is now publishing them on Kindle, along with novels that were done by fellow translators that we know (on different forums, some still open, some now closed). A search for the store name on the Kindle store shows 23 results: Legend of Condor Heroes (books 1-5), Return of Condor Heroes (books 1-5), Heaven Sword and Dragon Scabbard (books 1-5), The Smiling Proud Wanderer (books 1-5), The Book and The Sword (books 1-2), and Sword of the Yueh Maiden. The original author of all of these books was Mr. Louis Cha/Jinyong. The first 20 books (Legend of Condor Heroes, Return of Condor Heroes, Heaven Sword and Dragon Scabbard, Smiling Proud Wanderer) appear to have been copied wholesale from the work done by our translators at www.spcnet.tv/forums. The other books (Book and the Sword, Sword of the Yueh Maiden) were originally done by other translators at different sites. In no case was any original work done by Wenxue Publishing.

By selling our translations on Kindle, Wenxue Publishing is infringing against the copyrights of the original Chinese author and directly committing copyright theft against the translators, myself included, who put in the painstaking time and effort to actually translate the original novels. We are therefore formally requesting that Amazon take action against Wenxue Publishing and remove all of the above-mentioned novels from the Kindle Store.

I would be happy to provide you with any further information that you might require regarding these copyright violations. You can contact me directly via this email address or at www.spcnet.tv/forums. Alternately, you can contact me at [deleted]; I am currently serving at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and this is my Malaysian cell phone number. If there are any documents which you need to physically mail to me, you can send it to the following address:

[Deleted]

I look forward to your speedy reply and thank you for your time.

[Deleted]
Translator
SPCNET Forum Moderator

you might want to send them some links to the translation, otherwise they'd have to search for it.

[foxs]

Ren, thanks for bringing it to my attention. Is there anything I can do? I agree with CFT, we need to spread the word, just make sure you give bad review on the publisher, not the story or the quality of translation. I was thinking of buying a book just to make sure, but I don't have any Kindle, so it will be quite useless; besides, I learned this morning that Single Whip has already checked. Would you write the review?

[CFT]

foxs, you can get a "Kindle for PC" application for free from Amazon. You can then get a preview of each title sent to your app. I would just 1-star each title rather than the publisher. Nothing "worse" than seeing a page of negative reviews. You can simply state that each title is the result of copyright theft. But I wouldn't feel comfortable doing so until each title is checked first. But given what Single Whip has posted it is probably safe to assume that Wen Xue has lifted the translations wholesale without even bothering to do some basic editing.

[Ren Wo Xing]

Response from Amazon:

Hi [deleted],

Thank you for your e-mail. We are unable to accurately identify the items you reference in your correspondence. Please either cut and paste the direct link to each item (i.e., http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Witch-M...8787754&sr=8-1) or provide us with the ASIN or ISBN-10, which can be found on the product page under ‘Product Details,’ as this will enable us to correctly identify the item(s). If there is more than one instance of the item, or similar works that you claim copyright infringement, please provide identifying information for each, but you may include them all in one notice.

Garth Skovgard

Copyright/Trademark Agent
Amazon.com

[Ren Wo Xing]

My response to Garth:

Dear Garth,

Thank you for your quick response! Please see below for the information on all twenty three (23) copyright violations. I have also included the location(s) of the original translations available online. Please let me know if any further information is required.

[Deleted]
Translator
SPCNET Forum Moderator

__________________________________________

SWORD OF THE YUEH MAIDEN:

This work was originally translated by an anonymous/unknown poster at qiqi.com.

Kindle/Wenxue Copyright Theft (x1):

http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Yue-Maid...4896337&sr=8-1, ASIN: B004EEP7H4

Original Translation:

http://qiqi.com/cgi-bin/bk2.pl?fd1=b...inyong&in=jy02, http://wuxiapedia.com/Novels/Jin-Yon...iden/The-story

BOOK AND THE SWORD:

This was originally translated by Graham Earnshaw, and in fact the hardcopy is on Amazon.com as well. The Wenxue Publishing version appears to be directly copied from Graham Earnshaw's original.

Kindle/Wenxue Copyright Theft (x2):

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Sword-boo...4896942&sr=8-2, ASIN: B004EEP7CY
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Sword-boo...4896942&sr=8-4, ASIN: B004EEP7EW

Original Translation:

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Sword-Lou...4896760&sr=8-1

HEAVEN SWORD AND DRAGON SABRE:

This novel was originally translated by a team of translators on www.spcnet.tv/forums, in large part by the translator “foxs”, amongst others.

Kindle/Wenxus Copyright Theft (x5):

http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Sword-D...4897228&sr=8-3, ASIN: B004H4XRCS
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Sword-D...897228&sr=8-10, ASIN: B004H4XRDM
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Sword-D...897228&sr=8-11, ASIN: B004H4XRF0
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Sword-D...4897228&sr=8-9, ASIN: B004GXBE5C
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Sword-D...897228&sr=8-13, ASIN: B004GXBE5W

Original Translation:

http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthre...SDS-unabridged.

SMILING PROUD WANDERER

This novel was originally translated by “Lanny Lin” and “Pokit”, amongst others. Lanny Lin’s translation is available at www.lannyland.com/wanderer, comprising the first 20 chapter’s, while Pokit’s translation was done at SPCNET. See the links below.

Kindle/Wenxue’s Copyright Theft (x5):

http://www.amazon.com/Smiling-Proud-...897228&sr=8-12, ASIN: B004IE9XBG
http://www.amazon.com/Smiling-Proud-...4897228&sr=8-7, ASIN: B004IE9XAC
http://www.amazon.com/Smiling-Proud-...4897228&sr=8-8, ASIN: B004IE9XD4
http://www.amazon.com/Smiling-Proud-...4897228&sr=8-6, ASIN: B004IE9XDO
http://www.amazon.com/Smiling-Proud-...4897228&sr=8-5, ASIN: B004IE9XJI

Original Translation:

www.lannyland.com/wanderer
http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthre...rer-Unabridged

LEGEND OF CONDOR HEROES:

This novel was originally translated by the translators at SPCNET, including “foxs”, “Moinllieon”, and many others.

Kindle/Wenxue’s Copyright Theft (x5):

http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Condor-...898293&sr=8-21, ASIN: B004G8QZEW
http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Condor-...897228&sr=8-15, ASIN: B004G8QZGA
http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Condor-...898293&sr=8-23, ASIN: B004GB163Y
http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Condor-...898293&sr=8-22, ASIN: B004G8R014
http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Condor-...898293&sr=8-17, ASIN: B004G8QZJW

Original Translation:

http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthre...OCH-unabridged

RETURN OF CONDOR HEROES

This novel was largely translated by “Noodles” and “IcyFox” on SPCNET.

Kindle/Wenxue’s Copyright Theft (x5):

http://www.amazon.com/Return-Condor-...899353&sr=8-20, ASIN: B004FPZ6LY
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Condor-...897228&sr=8-16, ASIN: B004FPZ6FU
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Condor-...899353&sr=8-19, ASIN: B004FPZ6HI
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Condor-...899353&sr=8-18, ASIN: B004FN2C8Q
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Condor-...897228&sr=8-14, ASIN: B004FN2C4A

Original Translation:

http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthre...OCH-unabridged

[kidd]

Wah, piracy and copyright infringement. Hope the publisher won't get away with it. Making money out of the hard work of our translators. Our translators do it for free and they sell it for $10 and claiming to work with Louis Cha some more. That's quite a lot of money.

[athlee]

Its nothing new actually, there use to be plenty of fansub anime on sale in ebay 5/6 years back (not sure about now). In Malaysia even better, fansubs used to be sold as original animes

RWX: I think you forgot to delete your name in your last post.

[kidd]

Wonder if George Isaacs is a fellow spcneter.

Note: George Isaacs is the person who gave a 1 star review for one of the LOCH kindle books and pointed out that the publisher profited from the work of out translator. He's NOT the one who steal the work.

http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Condor-...owViewpoints=1

[Ren Wo Xing]

Its nothing new actually, there use to be plenty of fansub anime on sale in ebay 5/6 years back (not sure about now). In Malaysia even better, fansubs used to be sold as original animes

RWX: I think you forgot to delete your name in your last post.

Thanks for the head's up.

[Da Bao]

Wonder if George Isaacs is a fellow spcneter.

I hope not, this is a huge betrayal of the spcnet community. It's such BS to steal the fan translations that our translators worked so hard on and sell it.

I'll follow so I can keep updated. This guy makes me so angry, stealing people's work and labelling it as "his" translation and continuing his lie that he's working with Jin Yong.