law

This was reported last Friday: the German Federal Social Security Court (Bundessozialgericht) held that the translation of instructions for use is not creative. The context was a request by the Kunstlersozialkasse for contributions from a business. That pensions and health fund only admits members who do most of their translation for publication, so I would have thought there were other justifications for turning the Kasse down.

Kassel (dpa) - Übersetzungen von Gebrauchsanweisungen sind keine kreativen publizistischen Werke. Das hat das Bundessozialgericht in Kassel in einem am Freitag veröffentlichten Urteil zum Streit zwischen der Künstlersozialkasse und einem Elektrounternehmen aus Nordrhein-Westfalen entschieden. Nach Überzeugung des dritten Senats hat die Kasse zu Unrecht Sozialabgaben von rund 2700 Euro verlangt.

Die Firma hatte Bedienungsanleitungen und Werbebroschüren ins Englische und in andere Sprachen übersetzen lassen. Bei solchen Arbeiten fehle der Interpretationsspielraum, den es bei literarischen Übersetzungen gebe, urteilten die Sozialrichter. Er sei daher keine publizistische Leistung, sondern gewissermaßen nur eine Kopie des Originaltextes, wie sie auch ein Übersetzungscomputer liefern könne.

I think one would need to see the whole decision, because if the court said 'not kreative publizistische works', one doesn't know which adjective the emphasis is on. I also have no idea if this has implications for the other courts in other aspects of translation and creativity.

The report was here but has scrolled.
(Reported by Marisa Manzin on the pt group at Yahoo)

The story of the brother and sister in east Germany who had four children was reported in the Guardian yesterday.

The couple, who live near Leipzig, grew up separately and only met many years later. Their supporters say they will fight until incest is no longer regarded as a criminal offence, arguing that the law is out of date. They say it harks back to the racial hygiene laws of the Third Reich and should be overturned in favour of freedom of choice and sexual determination. Detractors insist that incest should remain a social taboo, largely because of the risks linked to inbreeding and the imbalance in social relations it inevitably causes.

It does appear that incest is not a crime in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, and according to Wikipedia also not in Luxembourg, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and some other Latin American countries. And the German three-year prison sentence and removal of the children seem quite inappropriate.

In England and Wales, incest was not a crime till 1908, but was dealt with by the church courts. It's now governed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which can be looked up here. Prison sentences seem reserved for men or boys who knowingly have sexual intercourse with a daughter, sister etc.

Here's the Strafgesetzbuch:

§ 173 Beischlaf zwischen Verwandten
(1) Wer mit einem leiblichen Abkömmling den Beischlaf vollzieht, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu drei Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft.
(2) 1Wer mit einem leiblichen Verwandten aufsteigender Linie den Beischlaf vollzieht, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu zwei Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft; dies gilt auch dann, wenn das Verwandtschaftsverhältnis erloschen ist. 2Ebenso werden leibliche Geschwister bestraft, die miteinander den Beischlaf vollziehen.
(3) Abkömmlinge und Geschwister werden nicht nach dieser Vorschrift bestraft, wenn sie zur Zeit der Tat noch nicht achtzehn Jahre alt waren.

Does this mean you don't need to be aware? The question first came up in connection with the Abstammungsurkunde, the full-form birth certificate, which may tell people they're adopted but won't necessarily give the name of the blood father.

Heutzutage kann man die neuesten Berühmtheiten auf der Richterbank in den USA auch gleich auf youtube schauen.
(Suche: Larry Seidlin)

From the Times Online: Tearful judge tipped for TV stardom after Anna Nicole show

Judge Seidlin, who paid his way through law school by driving a New York cab, is a native of the Bronx. He might have left that neighbourhood but it has certainly not left him.

Barking out pronouncements in his Florida courtroom in the thickest of New York accents, he nicknamed lawyers after their home states: “California, this doesn’t concern you!”; “Houston, I thought you were leaving!” “Texas” caused a stir on Thursday when he collapsed. The judge shouted: “He’s a diabetic. I can tell by his colour.” He offered to buy him some orange juice and fished out his credit card.

Youtube video of week
Tearful ruling

The Financial Times Deutschland has an article about the frequent use of disclaimers, above all in email, and their ineffectiveness (as they are one-sided).

Manchmal ist es eine Einladung zum Mittagessen. Ein anderes Mal poppt die Nachricht auf, dass sich das Meeting verschiebt. Harmlose Mitteilungen per E-Mail, zunächst. Bis der Blick des Lesers auf das Ende der elektronischen Mitteilung fällt: "Diese Information ist vertraulich. Falls Sie diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte unverzüglich den Absender, und vernichten Sie diese E-Mail. Das Kopieren und Weiterleiten ist verboten."

Thanks for the link to Per Döhler, who also reminded me of the site www.angstklauseln.de, which I noted from a German legal weblog recently but lost. It's a collection of such paragraphs.

The contents of this mail are freely re-distributable under the GPL. Any files that are transmitted with it must be hitchhikers that have been picked up while the mail was speeding along the information highway. As this mail is neither digitally encrypted nor signed, it can't be considered confidential and/or intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed to. Any attachments that may have hopped on along the way are to be regarded as useless jetsam made from recycled electrons and must be deleted straight away. The views stated in this flutter definitely do not represent the view of any company on this planet that the author knows of. We are sorry to have bothered you if you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail. You may, however, copy, forward, disclose or otherwise use this mail or any part of it in any form whatsoever, provided that you really feel like it, but you can also just hit the delete-key and get it over with. If you have received this mail in error please do not trouble yourself to inform the sender about it as that's obviously his/her own fault.

For a different view, see www.emaildisclaimers.com.

bq. What the experts say:
'If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you should include a notice, then you should include one'.
Email@work 2000, Jonathan Whelan

Here are some stupid disclaimers and good links, and here is the longest disclaimer.

(Originally via Carsten Hoenig and JuraWiki)

This is fun: BOOK9.nl, a site where anyone can post translations into English of Dutch decisions on intellectual property law.

Book9.nl is part of the Dutch IP-website Boek9.nl and contains mainly informal and often uncorrected English translations of (summaries of) recent Dutch case law on intellectual property. Book9.nl does not pretend to be complete or to offer a selection of all relevant cases, but merely provides the possibility to share translations of Dutch case law, e.g. translations made for foreign clients, with (foreign) colleagues and researchers. Everyone is invited to send in translations of Dutch IP case law, preferably accompanied by a very short summary by way of introduction, to: editor@book9.nl.

Sponsors can pay 100 euros to have their logos displayed for a year.

(Via IPKat)