Re: nettime: Quick Clarification

[Boris Groendahl <boris@berlin.snafu.de>]

Paul,

>This is not the only "innaccuracy" in David Hudson's
>english translation of the Boris Groendahl article in die Zeit,
>"Der Verteilungskampf um die Internet-Addressen".
>
>The title, "Plundering the Domain" is a dishonest and incorrect
>translation of Groendahl's original title:
>
>"Der Verteilungskampf um die Internet-Addressen"
>
>The word "Verteilungskampf" does not mean "plunder"
>it means "the struggle over distribution".

Neither the Zeit nor the Rewired title was my own. You are correct in
stating that "plundering the domain" is not the translation of "Der
Verteilungskampf um die Internetadressen".

So what? Die Zeit is a very earnest weekly that your typical German
university professor would read. Rewired is a website for engaged, if
polemical commentary. I find it perfectly suitable to have different titles
for the same article in different media.

>Given that David Hudson significantly editorialized in his
>translation of the title--his version has a totally different
>implication than the original--how can anyone who doesn't
>read German be sure of the accuracy of the rest of Hudson's
>translingalism?

David did _not_ editorialize my article at all.

You are again correct if you noticed differences in the Zeit and in the
Rewired article. You are wrong if you think David made those differences up.

David was translating the version of the article before the Zeit editors
cut it for the right length. Since we didn't have to worry about newspaper
pages real estate on Rewired, I told David explicitly to go ahead with this
slightly longer version.

>There is much misinformation present here, possibly through subtle
>translation "errors" which cast a vindictive tone on the subject
>and on me, without a full understanding of the reality.
>Such fabrication is unethical, especially since Hudson never
>fact-checked any of his sources (he never contacted
>me to verify his speculations...).  It amounts to gossip.

Paul, if you think any of the two versions of my article contains factual
errors, please elaborate. Any source that appears in the article is my
source, not David's. If you think any quote in either the Zeit or the
Rewired version is wrong, please elaborate. At any rate, the sole person
responsible for anything in the article is me, not David.

Speaking about fact-checking, I wonder why you didn't bother to ask me
before you accused David publically of inserting errors in my article. For
someone with as high ethical standards as yours apparently are, this should
be self-evident.

All the best,

Boris.

-+----+------------------- Boris Groendahl
-----+----+-+------++----- Texte Und Konzepte Fuer Medien
-+------------------------ boris@well.com
---------------------+---- voice +49-30-68 83 43 58
--+----------------------- cellular +49-172-322 13 58
-----+-------------------- facsimile +49-30-68 83 43 57


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