Can we achieve multilingual copyright information on Europeana?

We have two ways you can help us make this a possibility.

Everyone should know what they can do with the works they discover through Europeana Collections. This is the basic premise that drives our work to help data partners apply the most appropriate rights statements to the objects they publish. What if we made the information we publish about copyright and reuse available in your native language? Would it make it easier for you to understand and share?

Action #1: Trialling community-contributed translations into five languages

We want to translate our basic copyright and reuse terms into all 28 official languages of the EU using the goodwill of our network. But this could turn into a complex task to ensure translations are accurate, so we’re going to take a lean approach and work with five languages to start with, using this experience to make it easier to translate the remaining 22.

So how can you help? Other than English, do you speak one of the 28 official languages of the EU? Are you interested in providing a translation of our copyright and reuse information into your native language? If you are, let us know at copyright@europeana.eu

We’ll work with the first five languages you’re interested in translating and share our progress as we go. Keep an eye out for updates and calls for action via our new copyright community homepage and @EuropeanaIPR Twitter account.

Action #2: The German translation of RightsStatements.org now open for Public Consultation

Europeana uses 6 statements derived from RightsStatements.org consortium. With huge thanks to Europeana Members Council Member Ellen Euler, they have now been translated into German. The Consortium, who are starting to process translations of statements following their own Translation Policy, have undertaken two internal reviews. And they are now opening them up for public review - if you are a native German speaker, check out the translation and submit any feedback you have directly into the document by Midnight Friday 30 March.

Once all the feedback has been reviewed and addressed, the translated statements will be available via rightsstatements.org and will be accepted for use on Europeana Collections.