As an artiste and songwriter based in the Eastern Caribbean, you and your team are keen on expanding your market reach within the Caribbean and are now looking towards the French West Indies. You’ve had a few releases so far which have made quite a splash in the Anglo-Caribbean territories, so why not translate them to Creole or French and release those translated versions in the French islands?

Or perhaps you’re a music creative from Saint Lucia or Dominica interested in releasing a creole version of your favourite Alicia Keys or John Legend track. You have no doubt that this unique version of an already popular song would make waves in foreign territories.

Yet simply proceeding with the above ideas without considering copyright ownership and whether your creole version of an existing work would constitute as copyright infringement could cost you severely. There’s also the question of who owns copyright in a translated work.

Inherent in an author’s copyright of a music work is the exclusive right to translate the copyrighted work. This means that no one else can translate the work without permission from the copyright owners. Translating the work then without permission will infringe the owner’s copyright.

Ok so say you’ve obtained the necessary permission, the question then becomes who owns copyright in the translated work? Does the translator own copyright in this new work? Is the translator entitled to royalty earnings from the translated work? Do the original authors still hold copyright in the translated work?

Essentially the answer to the above lies in the agreements between the parties. However standard practice is that the translator becomes a part copyright owner of the new work and is now entitled to a share of royalty earnings.

For your reference we’ve provided ECCO’s guidelines on share allocations for translations.

TRANSLATIONS OF LYRICS AND ADDITION OR AMENDED OR SUBSTITUTED LYRICS

“Where an authorised translation of copyright lyrics is made, or lyrics are changed or substituted with the authority of the copyright owner, shares are allocated as follows:

Published Works

Composer(s)     25%

Original Lyricist(s)    12.5%

Translator(s)     12.5%

 Publisher(s)     50%

Unpublished Works

Composer(s)     50%

Original Lyricist(s)    25%

Translator(s)     25%

“Where a translation of non-copyright lyrics is made, or non-copyright lyrics are changed or substituted, shares are allocated as follows:

 Published Works

Arranger(s)     12.5%

Translator(s)     12.5%

Publisher(s)     25%

*Non copyright element    50%

Unpublished Works

Arranger(s)     25%

Translator(s)     25%

*Non copyright element    50%

* Returned to distributable revenue.