I had that feeling when I discovered that I have to pay a cancellation fee of $42 to leave L10Nbridge’s stinking ‘MarketPlace’. They say that joining a gang is free, but to leave the gang you have to pay a price.

I am calling Lionbridge’s MarketPlace “stinking” because they are pushing translation rates down to sweat-shop levels there. Immoral? Good business practice – from shareholders’ point of view? I don’t know, but I am not playing their games anymore. In Europe, there was a massive exodus of French and Spanish translators from the ranks of this giant translation and localization joint. It seems people in the Old World have higher standards of ethics, and in general are a prouder bunch. After all, money is not everything. But here in America money still rules, people are afraid to lose income, and as a result they let the motherfuckers like L10Nbridge set their rules to rob their own providers.

The sad thing about it is that if I try to contest this outrageous charge, they’ll point me to a provision of the contract, where this mob practice is stipulated. If you want to contest it, welcome to the American Court system. I’ll pass on that. After all, I can earn enough doing certified translations for individuals as I did before.

Companies like LIOX are responsible for the slow death of translator’s occupation. Fewer and fewer professionals remain in business. Poorly educated, illiterate localizers ready to work for pennies are filling the void, and lingvonecrosis (my term) is setting in. Sad, very sad.