To me this is the fundamental difference between the world of high-tech and the world of translation. In my previous position, I was also required to sign a confidentiality agreement. This prevented me from sharing non-sensitive parts of my only significant accomplishment at the company, a 115 page user guide, with potential employers. Believe it or not if you are a technical writer this kind of agreement is not that uncommon. Twitter is writing in very legal terms that translators should be aware that what they are doing is on a purely volunteer basis and should not expect any benefits or even the right to use their work for other purposes. The reason they can not share their work is to prevent potential confidential information from leaking to competitors. When translating we like to believe that we have the rights to whatever we’re translating. If you are working for a high tech company (even on a volunteer basis) it is made very clear to you that you have no rights whatsoever. My question is how many potential translators take the trouble to read the agreement before signing it, and do they even care? To me these are the important questions we should be asking.
To me this is the fundamental difference between the world of high-tech and the world of translation. In my previous position, I was also required to sign a confidentiality agreement. This prevented me from sharing non-sensitive parts of my only significant accomplishment at the company, a 115 page user guide, with potential employers. Believe it or not if you are a technical writer this kind of agreement is not that uncommon. Twitter is writing in very legal terms that translators should be aware that what they are doing is on a purely volunteer basis and should not expect any benefits or even the right to use their work for other purposes. The reason they can not share their work is to prevent potential confidential information from leaking to competitors. When translating we like to believe that we have the rights to whatever we’re translating. If you are working for a high tech company (even on a volunteer basis) it is made very clear to you that you have no rights whatsoever. My question is how many potential translators take the trouble to read the agreement before signing it, and do they even care? To me these are the important questions we should be asking.