copyright licensing indonesia translation
License of translation software Quran and Hadits
<p>There is software license on "9 imam Hadits" by lidwa.com and it is copyrighted, the owner claim no one can copy their database, but aren't the Quran and Hadits themselves licensed and copyrighted by God and Prophet?</p>

<p>According to Islamic laws it is free to copy the Quran and Hadits, but can someone claim copyright for the translation?</p>

<p>They translate the Arabic to Indonesian with huge effort and what is Legal Law to copy the Indonesian translation of the Quran and Hadits?</p>

<p>I can't answer for the Indonesian law specifically. But in general, under most international copyright schemes, a translation is considered a copyrightable work.</p>

<p>This means that even if the original work (in this case, the Quran and Hadith) is in the public domain, derivative works based on that public domain work can still be copyrighted by their creators. This includes, for example:</p>

<ul>
<li>A song with lyrics taken from the Quran</li>
<li>A play or movie dramatizing stories from the Quran</li>
<li>A novel retelling a story from the Quran</li>
</ul>

<p>In all of these cases, the author has built something new, based on the public domain framework. Because they contributed something original, they are entitled to a copyright on their original contribution. They can't stop someone from copying the Quran themselves, but they can stop someone from copying their original work based on the Quran.</p>

<p>Most copyright courts--again, I don't know about Indonesia specifically--will treat a translation the same way. A translation is an original work that requires creativity and skill--otherwise Google Translate would work a lot better than it does. Just like a movie based on the Quran, a translation based on the Quran will probably be copyrightable under most, if not all, countries' copyright laws.</p>
