Translate game. Legal or not?

[Papaxibe]

Hello World!

I'm working in a portuguese version of the classic "Seasons of Sakura", one of the best hentai games of all times.

Is my work legal? Is there laws about this? Any copyrights? Or my work can be a "fan game"? By the way, is "fan games" legal?

Sorry for a basic question, but I don't find answers anywhere.

Let's the show begin!

[Blue Lemma]

My guess is that it's not technically legal, but no one is likely to technically care. Of course, I'm not a lawyer or anything so those are just guesses... Not legal advice!

[yummy]

Unless a permission has been granted explicitly to you by the owner of the copyrights, your translation is not legal, be it a "fan game translation" or not (check the International Patent System, or INPI in french and spanish)

Plus, it's known that most companies dread this (key, for exemple). Why?

Firstly, it might be interpreted as stealing concepts and ideas put into a work. Imagine your own released game being translated by an unknown source. Imagine your wording being completely out of range.
So one of their fears is the lack of quality that was into the original work (they care about their image).

Secondly, some guys seem to be overproud of their own translation. They tend to forget that they are only borrowing ideas that aren't theirs. Nevertheless, they claim the translation is their work.
So the other concern is the risk of fakes, of misjudged claims that might be a great prejudice to the original work (they care about their $$$ for releasing something).

Thirdly, there is a great concern about piracy.
There's no avoiding piracy, but at least, the language barrier has maintained some sort of natural barrier that repelled those who might benefit from this.
Creating a patch might be some sort of piracy trigger (they care about their $$$ for existance).

Finally, there's a great issue about respect.
While you might be a great fan of the game you intend to translate, there's a big concern about the authors who have created it.
Some of them even consider their work as babies (I quite understand them, really).

That being said, it doesn't prevent you from doing this as a hobby.
I translate from time to time some games for fun.

[PyTom]

I'm working in a portuguese version of the classic "Seasons of Sakura", one of the best hentai games of all times.

Is my work legal? Is there laws about this? Any copyrights? Or my work can be a "fan game"? By the way, is "fan games" legal?

I don't know Portuguese law too well, so I'm going to answer based off of US law, which I believe is similar (both nations are signatories to the Berne convetion).

In general, no, your work is not legal. The original author has the right to license translations and adaptations. There's no exception for fan-work, either... fan games and fanfic are illegal without permission of the copyright holder.

Now, that being said, translating games is getting to be an accepted activity. It seems that people are considering it moral as long as the translation is distributed as a patch to the game that requires the commercial version to run. Distributing the patch and the game together is a no-no, as is charging money for the patch.

Seasons of the Sakura is interesting, insofar as it is an actively license game, being sold by J-List (through one of their many names). I would probably either ask permission of them, or choose a different (unlicensed) game.

IANAL, and this is not legal advice.

[Papaxibe]

Hello world!

I didn't know that my work was so dangerous. That's too bad...

But I'd learn a lot about programming of Ren'py in these days. It was days of blood, sweat and tears... I'll abandon my translate project, and start a own idea.

Thanks for the anwsers!

PS.: If anyone need a programmer, I will be here.

[Misuzu]

Plus, it's known that most companies dread this (key, for exemple). Why?

Actually... the majority of companies turn a blind eye towards projects. Of the companies the translation projects have talked to in the past, a greater number of them knew that a translation project of sorts was happening, but as long as they don't "see" it, they won't take any action.

Legally though, it is definitely not legal to translate a game.

And I agree with Pytom, that you should check with an email to the Payne Zaibatsu and the original creator (if their still in business). If they don't respond (which is pretty typically response to a translation request as we've found out), it typically means they don't enough to warrant any action.

That's been my experience in working with ppl in the translation community.