: George Orwell died over 70 years ago: how does this affect the copyright of translations of his works? From what I understand, since George Orwell died (21 Jan. 1950) slightly over 70 years

@Jamie945

Posted in: #Copyright #Translation

From what I understand, since George Orwell died (21 Jan. 1950) slightly over 70 years ago now, his books are now in the public domain under UK copyright law:


Type of work
Written, dramatic, musical and artistic work
How long copyright usually lasts
70 years after the author’s death


There's a bunch of translations of George Orwell's books, and I'm wondering how this change affects these translations.

Question: George Orwell died over 70 years ago: how does this affect the copyright of translations of his works?

In particular, I mulling over the idea of turning a Chinese translation of 1984 into an annotated version one could use for learning to read Chinese. I don't intend to make a profit from this, perhaps post it on a website simply to help people.

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@Jamie945

@Jamie945

Translations are typically considered to have their own copyright protection in addition to the copyright of the original work being translated.

This means that you will have to research the copyright status of whatever specific translation you are wanting to derive from, both in the country of its publication and in your own country you intend to publish in. It is likely that any given translation of Orwell is still under copyright.

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