To Ms. Lessard & All others concerned:
Good day to you all! My name is David
Willis, and I am the Assistant Manager for Terminology Café. It has come to
my attention that there is some question as to the originality, reliability,
and professionalism of our site, terminologycafe.com. I would like to
address each of the concerns at hand, so that any and all who visit our site
may do so with the confidence and trust we would like for our customers to
hold.
First, and in my own mind foremost, is the
accusation of plagiarism by Ms. Lessard to her article “Search Tools for
Translators” on the Translators Cafe website. Before I go into the
preposterousness of this accusation, let me show you the individual quotes
in question.
As quoted from the aforementioned article, “Terminological
research is undoubtedly the most time-consuming and least profitable task
for freelance technical translators. Since most of us are paid a fixed rate
per word, the faster we can find answers to our questions, the better!
Search skills and specialized tools are therefore playing a crucial role in
our work.”
As quoted from the main page of
terminologycafe.com, “Terminology Café believes without a doubt that
terminology research is one of the most challenging areas of today’s
translation and localization projects. It is perhaps the most time-consuming
and least profitable of tasks in which a freelance technical translator can
be involved. Since most of you are paid a fixed rate per word, the faster
you can find answers to your questions, the better! “
Now, as you can see, yes, the wording on the
two documents are similar… HOWEVER, they are NOT identical, which is, by
definition, NOT plagiarism. Also, it should be pointed out that this
article, was not within the knowledge of the creator of this site at the
time that terminologycafe.com was created. Secondly, by quote made by Ms.
Lessard herself, the article itself is not under legal copy write under any
country, so this article would have been free and public domain.
Now, on to the secondary accusation. To
quote a recent letter written by Ms. Lessard to one of our own translators,
“Since they are **selling** their terminological data, I cannot help
wondering if they are the authors of these glossaries or if they took any
care at all in compiling them. They sure did not put very much effort in
their own Web site.”
As one that has assisted in the creation,
transcription, and compilation of many of the glossaries available through
Terminology Café, I find this accusation by Ms. Lessard absolutely
unfounded, and horridly slanderous. I can tell you from personal experience
that EACH glossary has been put together by PROFESSIONALS. To give you a
few examples of the individuals that have assisted in the creation of these
glossaries:
Myself – over 10 years experience with video,
audio & text transcription & data entry.
L. D. – over 20 years experience with translation in a host of languages.
K. G. – over 15 years experience with translation and data entry.
T. B. – over 6 years experience with webpage design.
This is just a small sampling of the
experience of those that put together those glossaries, or the website, and
to hear that our work might have been anything but 100% is pure slander.
As a final thought, we would like to say that
we do not hold any ill will towards Translators Café, or any of the members
of said site. Though Ms. Lessard has presented herself as an “official”
representative of the Translators Café website, we realize that this may be
a false representation, and that, as many of our linguist are members of
Translators Café, it is a wonderful resource for all translators. As you
can see, as it is linked from our main site!
We would like to thank you all for your
attention in this serious, but hopefully temporary matter.
As always, if you have any questions, feel
free to contact me at dave@terminologycafe.com!
David Willis
Assistant Manager
Terminology Café
