Hello,
Your welcomed post allows us to clarify a few points about
Thompkins&Cariou's stand on copyright and, more generally, about the
question of the copyright status of Julius Evola's work.
Currently, two main Italian publishing houses seem to own the
copyright of the books he published in his lifetime, as opposed to
those which were brought out after his death by various Italian
publishers. These are Mediterranee Edizioni and Edizioni di Ar; the
former has published all Evola's main works (all those which were
brought out in English translation by Inner Traditions
were 'copyrighted' by this publishing house); the latter, which has
been publishing regularly for a few years anthologies of texts
published by Julius Evola in various Italian papers from the 1930's
to his death, was the first publisher to re-publish Evola's books on
race after WW2, more precisely in the 1970's. We have just
said "seem", because the fact is that it's all very vague. For
instance, 'Il Mito del sangue' was brought out, after a short
interval, by two different publishers, Edizioni di Ar and SeaR
Edizioni, which both 'copyrighted' this book. In his last wishes,
Julius Evola did not give any instructions on these matters. No
instruction on copyright has been found in his correspondence either,
to the best of our knowledge. We inquired. We did not get any answer,
not even a vague one.
As far as translations are concerned, it is not difficult to gather
from this that it can only be even vaguer. As a result, anyone
interested in translating and publishing texts by Julius Evola in
another language than Italian is basically free to do so. Needless to
say that it is then recommended to send a copy of the text in
question to the Italian publishing house which published the original
version. In the same way, Thompkins&Cariou expects anyone interested
in using for editorial purposes any of the texts published by
Thompkins&Cariou to ask us our permission. Those who, before
http//thompkins_cariou.tripod.com opened, googling or
yahooing 'Julius Evola', came across the same texts by Evola in
English, copied and pasted, again and again, from site to site, see
our point. Besides, we reserve the right to give our permission or
not, depending on the nature of the publication interested in using
the texts published by us.
Besides doing our best to present adequately Evola's work to Anglo-
Saxon readers who don't read Italian, we view favourably and we will
support any serious, consistent and firm attempt to spread it in
Russia - save in so-called 'National-Bolchevik' circles - as well as
in any other Slavic country and in the Baltic states.
Since, with René Guénon, we consider that to speak of 'intellectual
property' is a contradiction in terms, it goes without saying that we
don't have any sympathy for the notion of 'copyright' conceived of as
a legal defence of, precisely, so-called 'intellectual property',
especially within the context of a gynaeco-democratic `justice'; this
notion developed in modern times and originates, to a large extent,
in the faceless individualism of these times, and, in passing, is not
necessarily to be mistaken with what Beaumarchais, a dilettante
revolutionary who was actually a spy of Louis XVI, called 'droit
d'auteur', before initiating a law along these lines. The first
allows anyone to buy the rights of a work and the author who sells it
is no longer in possession of it, while the second defends the author
against any distortion of his work.
Leaving this distinction aside, the fact is that,
whether 'copyrighted' in the American way or in the French way, it's
often the sales of his book(s) which allows an author to earn a
living. In this respect, we find it most useful to point out that the
only source of income which René Guénon had in Egypt was the money he
got from the publication of his articles in "Etudes traditionnelles",
a paper run then by Paul Chacornac who published in 1958 a biography
of the French metaphysician, "La Vie simple de René Guénon", and who,
however, didn't make his life easy, since, according to Jean Reyor,
who was his assistant for a long while, five or six months sometimes
passed, during which René Guénon would write every two weeks or so to
Chacornac about this, before he got paid: it's all very well to
defend 'traditional ideas' in the abstract and on paper, but it's
also important to stand up for 'traditional values' and to apply them
in day-to-day life, especially when it comes to people who should be
the first to set an example.
Thompkins&Cariou
P.s. : we cannot access
http://alchemy.gnosticism.info/works/tradition/Evola/Victim_of_Israel.
doc
--- In
evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "internalway"
<internalway@y...> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Sirs.
>
> "A Victim of Israel" in Russian is here:
>
>
http://alchemy.gnosticism.info/works/tradition/Evola/Victim_of_Israel.
> doc
>
> The well known translator of hermetic and traditional texts Gleb
> Butuzov
> (
http://ars-regia.net
>
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/russian.html)
> has positively responded about its quality.
>
> Now I am translating "The Concept of Initiation".
> I hope that my activity does not strike at the rights of
> Thompkins&Cariou.
>
> I thank Thompkins and Cariou for their work and I give my
translations
> in their full possession.
>
> Best regards,
> Roman.