Saturday, 2 November 1996, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Forum 8, Shibuya, Room 508

Fee: ?2,500 for SWET members, ?4,000 for nonmembers

Have you ever wondered about the laws relating to your work as a writer, editor, or translator? SWET’s November 2 meeting will provide the answers. Our speakers, two lawyers who specialize in intellectual property law, will discuss cases posed by SWET members (via SWET-L) as part of an overview of the subject.

The speakers provide not only Japanese expertise but European and North American as well. Bernhard Steves, a German by birth, trained in England, has long experience with a law firm in Japan, and James Nelson, an American, recently graduated from University of Hawaii’s law school after nearly twenty years of experience with Japanese and American publishers.

The basic questions to be addressed in the meeting include

• What are my rights in the publications that I write, edit, or translate? Are my rights different for electronic publication than for paper publication?
• What rights do my employers or contractors have in my work?
• Can I use other people’s work? In what circumstances can I use it?
• What should I do to secure my rights?

Some of the areas posed by members are

• Should I be worried about using material that I have obtained by permission, through Internet for example, that may contain work done by another person and reproduced without the other person’s permission?
• I have modified a copyrighted font, which I am licensed to use and to modify for my own use, so it provides the diacriticals needed for Turkish. Can I give my modified version to a friend? Can I make it generally accessible through a computer network or Internet? Can I sell it to someone?
• I produce my Web data (text and images) in Japan but upload them to an Internet server in Phoenix, Arizona. Am I protected by Japanese or U.S. copyright law? If I discover that someone has stolen an original image from my Web site, what should I do?

Be on hand at FORUM 8 on November 2 and learn the answers to these and other questions faced by translators, editors, and writers.