Life In 19x19

L19 members,

i know it is everyone's wish to become a stronger player. i might have some idea that might intrest people who has that dream.
in my opinion quickest way to improve is read tons of books and reviews by professionals and study L & D. but it is often not easy to acquire such materials. i am fortunate enough to purchase korean monthly magazine everymonth which contains many intresting topics: news, L&D, game review, study materials, etc... beginning of everymonth i was happy to purchase that magazine. i believe that is how i became 1D within 1 year.

now, what if i purchase this monthly magazine and translate and put them on digit and email them out?

are you willing to pay for this service every month? Y or N
if yes what price range do you think is reasonable??

i just want to see what reaction i will get from people.

This interests me. What strength level is the magazine aimed towards?

Shaddy wrote:This interests me. What strength level is the magazine aimed towards?

i started as ddk and it took me 1 full week of reading and reviewing the game.
now i am stronger ..(and dont study as much) it takes me 2-3 days to read everything.

when i was in korean go club there were people who purchase this magazine and read them everymonth.
their skill level are ddk through 7d. even many korean professionals enjoy read this magazine.
i collected this magazine for 15 years and later donated them to my club when i got married.

Sounds good, I'd be willing to pay for it.

Shaddy wrote:Sounds good, I'd be willing to pay for it.

but how much?

that depends.. how long is each issue?

I might be interested to pay a small amount (of course provided that the service is legal, i.e. copyright issues are handled etc).

Magicwand wrote: i am fortunate enough to purchase korean monthly magazine everymonth which contains many intresting topics: news, L&D, game review, study materials, etc...

...now, what if i purchase this monthly magazine and translate and put them on digit and email them out?

This stuff tends to be copyrighted, but if you can get past that hurdle, the question is: what exactly would we be paying for? Would you translate a whole magazine? That's a lot of work, and although you are 7d in entertaining, my guess is that your translating would be DDK.

If you did the work, I would buy a copy for about what the Korean magazine costs.

Shaddy wrote:that depends.. how long is each issue?

it contains 3~4 professional reviw of the important game that was play last month.
it contains 1~2 lecture section about 5~7 pages long. August issue lecture topic was "good move, bad move, strange move"
it contains many intresting L & D.
it contains NEWS and interview.
it also contains about 10 game record of intresting game (no comment).
they used to have kyu level players asking question to professionals...i dont know if they still have them.

magazine name is "monthly Baduk"
they cost me about $15~18 to purchase.

i have another magazine "world Baduk"
which contains more materials for KYU level players. price is similar.

and some question abut copy right..
what happens if i paraphrase the comments into my own word? does it make it legal?
ofcourse i will not start anything if it is illegal.

Magicwand wrote:

Shaddy wrote:that depends.. how long is each issue?

it contains 3~4 professional reviw of the important game that was play last month.
it contains 1~2 lecture section about 5~7 pages long. August issue lecture topic was "good move, bad move, strange move"
it contains many intresting L & D.
it contains NEWS and interview.
it also contains about 10 game record of intresting game (no comment).
they used to have kyu level players asking question to professionals...i dont know if they still have them.

magazine name is "monthly Baduk"
they cost me about $15~18 to purchase.

i have another magazine "world Baduk"
which contains more materials for KYU level players. price is similar.

and some question abut copy right..
what happens if i paraphrase the comments into my own word? does it make it legal?
ofcourse i will not start anything if it is illegal.

It might be ok - afaik it's a bit of a grey area though, but then again I'm not a lawyer. HKA?

If paraphrased translations of statements of fact (and sometimes opinion, I guess) about a performance aren't covered under fair use, then that sucks. But if they are, I might be willing to pay $5 per issue for the unofficial translation (cover price for an official magazine in English printed on dead trees), so if you get 6 people at that price you'd be doubling your investment in the magazine.

Ooh, just realized - I bet Korea's fair use clause in their version of the Copyright Act has a phrase discriminating against commercial use, as ours does. So if that's the case you could translate and give it away, but not sell it. You might be able to ask for donations, but I think that still opens you up to a possibility of being sued (in the U.S. at least it would) and even if the suit isn't successful, it would still hurt.

Well, it's clearly not legal. You can't translate and sell something without obtaining rights. (You can, however, translate something for your own, personal use.)

But the bigger question is, what do these magazines have that is so much better than, say, Go World, or than buying books?

I would think that even if you could get the rights, this wouldn't be cost-effective for you. You'd get maybe a couple dozen people at most willing to pay for something like this regularly (and over a period of time), and translating can take a fair amount of time. (And I agree that you're probably a DDK translator )

maybe you can post an example issue for people to see how it looks.
I think it is very illegal, but the risk of getting sued is probably infinitesimally small.

Personally I would not pay for it. That is because I don't like to study go from a book/magazine, but mostly prefer to play, review and teach.

Magicwand wrote:L19 members,

i know it is everyone's wish to become a stronger player. i might have some idea that might intrest people who has that dream.
in my opinion quickest way to improve is read tons of books and reviews by professionals and study L & D. but it is often not easy to acquire such materials. i am fortunate enough to purchase korean monthly magazine everymonth which contains many intresting topics: news, L&D, game review, study materials, etc... beginning of everymonth i was happy to purchase that magazine. i believe that is how i became 1D within 1 year.

now, what if i purchase this monthly magazine and translate and put them on digit and email them out?

are you willing to pay for this service every month? Y or N
if yes what price range do you think is reasonable??

i just want to see what reaction i will get from people.

Well, this is an interesting idea. As someone else has mentioned, you might want to putout a trial copy. It is illegal, but I they won't bother pursuing you (unless you manage to make it really profitable). Although I think it is an interesting idea, I think you are underestimating the amount of work it can end up being. You better have above average writing skills; it isn't as easy to translate a magazine as it might seem at a first glance.

I would be willing to pay $20 to $30 if it has about the same amount of content as Go World, and assuming it is decently translated.

Another note I would like to make, is that these days, it isn't as hard as you have put it, to find L&D and commented pro games. It is hard to find good ones, and level appropriate ones, but just generic ones you can find in many places.

Selling your physical copy of the magazine with a translation of its contents is probably fine. Beyond that, you're on your own.

I think it's a cool idea, Magicwand.

In terms of legality, maybe we are the wrong source to ask. I actually subscribe to 바둑세계 (presumaby the kyu player magazine ), and if I have questions or concerns regarding issues with my purchase, they have a forum where I can ask questions:
http://oromall.com/board_list.php?boardIndex=1

I don't know if they can answer legal questions at that forum, but it's probably possible that you can find a forum that does.

They would probably know legal issues better than we do - or at least if it's something that they would prosecute for.