Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31599868-20191009002402/@comment-26239285-20191019235120

Hi, I'm back for a while. I've thought long and hard about this and I think that it would be wrong to remove her translations even if she demanded it (which now it appears she does). On the contrary, we should make every effort to preserve them.

Basically, they are a cultural asset. Not a perfect analogy, but if Michelangelo came back with a spray can and wanted to deface his paintings because he was now sick of them, not only would there be opposition, but people would physically try to stop him. Whether she likes it or not, her translations have become part of this community's culture and it would be a shame to obliterate all this creative work.

Secondly, if she gave permission in the past to host them but is now withdrawing it, it's like an author who has released a book and then withdrawn it from sale. I don't think an author can demand people return books they have purchased in the past. (Not that it changes anything but I'm very disappointed in how hypocritical it is for her to insist on her rights when she's brought on this trouble by not respecting other people's rights.) So while I don't know all the legalities involved, we may not be obliged to follow her demand anyway.

Perhaps as a compromise, we can remove the translation from the page, but add a note: "A translation by Hazuki no Yume has been deleted in accordance with the translator's request. For reference, it is available in the page history but should not be restored until it has entered the public domain."

That way, (a) the translation has been removed, (b) someone could look for it if another translation was unavailable and they're despereate enough, (c) some future day, the translation can be legally restored.

NB The translation won't be in the public domain in our lifetime, but should the wiki remain in existence by then, at least our descendents will know that a translation is available for use legally.

AFAICT the Wayback Machine did not capture all of her translations, but we should link to those that have been.