Disney rights (translations)

Erik Rastetter erik-rastetter at web.de
Thu Jan 17 11:39:31 CET 2002


Hello,  everybody!

Rob Klein wrote:

> the contract I signed with Oberon (later VNU) and Gutenberghus (later Egmont)indicated CLEARLy that
> the Disney Company paid a flat fee to the writer and artist for a story and/or
> artwork, which then gave it rights from then on, to change the story and
> artwork as it sees fit.
>

Just to add to Rob's statement:
Similar contract conditions with translators here in Germany.
Since 1999 I'm working as  translator for the weekly German "Micky Maus
Magazin" on a freelance basis (most times I translate Donald Duck
stories, rarely other charakters like Goofy).
And my contract also says, that the German publisher (i.e. Egmont Ehapa
Verlag, Berlin) has the right to revise and change any text I've
written. Not to mention, that the copyright is Ehapa's respectively
Disney's.
Happily the fact is, that my friendly editor Joachim Stahl (greetigs to
you!) seldom changes more than a few words.
And, of course, I signed that contract mainly because I like to work
with the Disney characters.
It is satisfying work to put German words and gags into the mouth of
Uncle Scrooge (Onkel Dagobert) and Donald and all the others. And there
is some poetic license to somehow re-invent the text, creating new gags
(which is neccessary because many idiomatic expressions one can't
translate from English into German) and polishing the diction.

So far (but no safari).

Erik
Rastetter

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