Translation Technology and Copyright

Translation technology (TT) has made significant technical advances over the past decade. Machine translation has become increasingly commonplace in everyday use through services such as Google Translate. At the same time, computer-aided translation systems are now an invaluable tool for the professional translator. Unlike the machine translation systems of yore, current systems are no longer based on explicit, formal models of language, but rather on machine learning and statistical methods using vast collections of multilingual documents with each language element aligned across language pairs. Because of this, entirely new questions of intellectual property become a crucial yet still poorly understood part of the enterprise. This article presents an introduction to translation technology and the legal questions potentially involved and then proceeds to the legal analysis of quantitative and qualitative requirements for copyright protection, the issue of potential (human and computer) authorship to translation technology output, and others.

Our article can be found here:

http://www.nir.nu/Journal/nir-2012-3

Sorry for the paywall. Our article has not undergone any language examination. According to the editors each text “shall be the voice of its author”.

Current Projects and a Book on Linking

Currently, I participate in the Graduate School Law in a Changing World:

http://www.helsinki.fi/omm/english/index.htm

"LCW graduate school covers all fields of legal studies, from various branches of positive law to general jurisprudential studies. Each doctoral student will get acquainted with the europeanisation and the globalisation of law... LCW provides the doctoral students with a systematic 4-year research training programme."

So far, we have had great fun together!

In addition, I am a member in a research project titled "New technologies in the content production and usage" funded by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation:

http://www.hssaatio.fi/images/stories/Pihlajarinne_Tiivistelm_pitk_suomi.pdf

Our principal investigator LL.D., docent Taina Pihlajarinne just published a book about linking (A Permission to Link) . It is available only in Finnish:

http://www.efokus.fi/flash/lupa_linkittaa/#/1/

Are you interested in articles on file sharing?

So am I. With regard to the history, I started my "career" as a researcher by examining peer-to-peer file sharing. The first article I wrote as a student during a seminar course on criminal law. My teacher asked if I was interested in publishing my seminar paper as an article and of course I was. I still remember the feeling when the article was published. The second and third article I wrote together with my co-authors in a research project funded by Nokia Research Center. During that time I worked at Helsinki Institute of Information Technology and at Aalto University. Heikki Kokkinen from Nokia Research Center defended his dissertation about the subject:

http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2010/isbn9789526034935/

Have a look at these:

An article about copyright infringements and the principle of legal certainty (Tekijänoikeusrikoksen ja rikkomuksen tunnusmerkistöt ja seuraamukset epätäsmällisyyskiellon näkökulmasta tarkasteltuna):

Tekijänoikeutta voidaan pitää tietoyhteiskunnan Magna Cartana. Tieto ja kommunikaatio ovat informaatioyhteiskunnan kehityksen edellytyksiä. Tekijänoikeus suojaa kirjallista, auditiivista ja visuaalista informaatiota ja vaikuttaa näin informaation jakeluun ja leviämiseen. Tekijänoikeuslainsäädäntö vaikuttaa nyky-yhteiskunnassa jokaisen ihmisen arkipäivään. Yksityiset ihmiset ja kansalaisjärjestöt hyödyntävät päivittäin uusia viestintäteknologioita ja lähettävät sekä vastaanottavat informaatiota ja viestejä. Tämän vuoksi tekijänoikeuslainsäädännön tulisi olla erityisen selkeää ja ymmärrettävää. Käytännössä vaatimus ei kuitenkaan toteudu. Osittaisuudistuksin kehittynyttä tekijänoikeuslainsäädäntöä luonnehditaan yleisesti mutkikkaaksi ja vaikeaselkoiseksi. http://www.edilex.fi/lakikirjasto/5923.pdf

Criminal Friends of Entertainment: Analysing Results from Recent Peer-to-Peer Surveys:

Why are people massively infringing copyright law? Do file sharers see changes in their consumption from legal sources? Do they know what they are doing is illegal or do they just not care? The problem calls for further study. We conducted a web survey and asked questions about file sharing and copyright law. This paper describes the results of that survey. http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/script-ed/vol5-1/hietanen.asp

Laila, a File Sharing Indulgence Service:

This paper analyses Laila, a new online service, which enables consumers to legalize their previous file sharing in exchange for a payment. We examine how a voluntary consumer-driven payment changes the practices and proposals related to peer-to-peer file sharing. Then we describe how Laila is helping to legalize currently illegal file sharing. http://www.nir.nu/Journal/nir-2009-2