Rights and quotation

Many landmark translations are old enough to be in the public domain (in the United States, published before 1931). Garnett, Maude, Butler, Pope, Chapman, Long, Casaubon and others fall here. We reproduce these verbatim from a cited source, and every launch work has at least one full-freedom column.

Modern versions (for example Pevear and Volokhonsky, Wilson, Fagles, Hays, Briggs) are quoted only as short excerpts, for the purpose of comparison and criticism. Our house rules, applied to every excerpt:

• at most 150 words of prose, or 12 lines of verse, per passage;
• at most three or four short excerpts from any one in-copyright translation of a work;
• every excerpt attributed to its translator and edition, next to a link to buy it;
• commentary on every comparison, never bare reproduction;
• no full chapters, no exportable full text, and no API that serves in-copyright excerpts.

Public-domain text comes from sources such as Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks and the Internet Archive, checked against the source. In-copyright excerpts are transcribed from copies we own; we do not scrape retailers’ “look inside” previews.

We believe our use is comparative criticism, which is a protected purpose, and we keep excerpts short and market-positive (each sits beside a buy link for that very edition). Even so, if you are a rights holder and would like an excerpt removed, contact us and we will take that specific excerpt down promptly. The page and its verdict remain; only the quotation goes.