[Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

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Renata St

13 Aug 2009 13 Aug '09

10:10 p.m.

It was raised before on the Village Pump, but I think this is so disturbing that we ought to do something. "Alphascript Publishing" has published over 1900 (and counting) books, all available on Amazon. Prices range from $31 to $179. All of these books are simple computer-generated copies from Wikipedia and (at least according to one Amazon reviewer) couple other public domain websites. Trouble is, from book description page there is absolutely no way of knowing that the book is a Wikipedia mirror on paper. At least several Amazon buyers have been fooled. What really gets my blood boiling is that Amazon user "VDM Verlag Dr.Müller" (I think someone exposed him as 100% shareholder of the publishing co) goes on rating these products as "five star".... The publisher seems to observe the copyright (even includes full edit history) so legal action seems impossible. Someone already contacted Amazon, but they "are not responsible for the quality of books sold". In the meantime the number of such books grew from 900 in June to almost 2000 as of today... I think we should do something. At the very least publishing product reviews warning that what this is.... See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:PrimeHunter/Alphascript_Publishing_sells_… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)/Archive… http://rufftoon.livejournal.com/59337.html Thanks, Renata P.S. on a happier note: half of Wikipedia editors now can claim to be "published authors".

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Joshua Gay

13 Aug 13 Aug

10:47 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

When I worked for the FSF I helped to run a campaign against the Amazon Kindle (and, DRM in general). We did an action called "The Kindle Swindle" in which we asked people to tag all DRM ebooks and the kindle itself with the tags "kindle swindle" and "DRM". People went ahead and tagged close to a thousand products with the term "Kindle Swindle" and the Kindle advice was tagged with that phrase close to 400 times making it become one of the top four tags on the Kindle page. What is kind of neat is that for each tag-term has its own discussion forum. The "Kindle Swindle" tag has a relatively active set of discussion threads [1], and the original comment I wrote [2] has over 250 replies to it. I imagine some combination of blogging, tagging, and letter writing could help in some way to increase consumer awareness and this kind of work can be done in a distributed fashion by wikimedians worldwide. footnotes :[1] http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle%20swindle?ref_=tag_dpp_cust_itdp_t :[2] http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle%20swindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_ef_tft_tp?_encod… On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Renata St<renatawiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

-- I am running the Arizona Rock'n'Roll marathon with Team in Training. Help me reach my fundraising goals: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/pfchangs10/joshuagay

David Goodman

10:56 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

I would be exceedingly uncomfortable with us organizing a negative campaign against any publisher not actually violating our copyright. . A factual campaign, providing information is another matter. It would be entirely appropriate for individuals, even in a somewhat coordinated way, to add a review, just pointing out that it is entirely a copy of a Wikipedia article, and available free in an updated version from our website--and in updated form. David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:47 PM, Joshua Gay<joshuagay(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

-- I am running the Arizona Rock'n'Roll marathon with Team in Training. Help me reach my fundraising goals: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/pfchangs10/joshuagay _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Renata St

14 Aug 14 Aug

12:14 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

That was kinda my point. They "deceive" potential buyers into thinking it's an original book/content without disclosing that it's just a copy from Wikipedia. There are disclaimers inside the book -- but that comes only after opening the wallet. Someone should put it up front. On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:56 PM, David Goodman <dgoodmanny(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle%20swindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_ef_tft_tp?_encod…

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Renata St<renatawiki(a)gmail.com> wrote: > It was raised before on the Village Pump, but I think this is so

disturbing

> that we ought to do something. > > "Alphascript Publishing" has published over 1900 (and counting) books,

all

> available on Amazon. Prices range from $31 to $179. All of these books

are

> simple computer-generated copies from Wikipedia and (at least according

> one Amazon reviewer) couple other public domain websites. Trouble is,

from

> book description page there is absolutely no way of knowing that the

book is

> a Wikipedia mirror on paper. At least several Amazon buyers have been > fooled. What really gets my blood boiling is that Amazon user "VDM

Verlag

> Dr.Müller" (I think someone exposed him as 100% shareholder of the > publishing co) goes on rating these products as "five star".... > > The publisher seems to observe the copyright (even includes full edit > history) so legal action seems impossible. Someone already contacted

Amazon,

> but they "are not responsible for the quality of books sold". In the > meantime the number of such books grew from 900 in June to almost 2000

as of

> today... I think we should do something. At the very least publishing > product reviews warning that what this is.... > > See: >

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:PrimeHunter/Alphascript_Publishing_sells_…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)/Archive… >> http://rufftoon.livejournal.com/59337.html

>> Thanks, >> Renata

>> P.S. on a happier note: half of Wikipedia editors now can claim to be >> "published authors". >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

> > > > -- > I am running the Arizona Rock'n'Roll marathon with Team in Training. > Help me reach my fundraising goals: > http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/pfchangs10/joshuagay > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Nikola Smolenski

6:49 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

Renata St wrote:

...

They "deceive" potential buyers into thinking it's an original book/content without disclosing that it's just a copy from Wikipedia. There are disclaimers inside the book -- but that comes only after opening the wallet. Someone should put it up front.

I don't know if they commonly do it but at least at http://amazon.decenturl.com/amazon.com-prehistoric-europe they openly say it's from Wikipedia.

Marco Chiesa

8:12 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 8:49 AM, Nikola Smolenski<smolensk(a)eunet.yu> wrote:

...

I don't know if they commonly do it but at least at http://amazon.decenturl.com/amazon.com-prehistoric-europe they openly say it's from Wikipedia.

And still by reading that review you get the impression that they're building upon wikipedia articles giving a more up-to-date version :) I'm glad they respect the license at least. In Italy we recently discovered a similar case, with a guy writing books copying verbatim wikipedia articles. He didn't respect the license, selling the content as his own copyright, however. The funny thing was that he forgot at least one "Citation needed" tag, so we had a lot of fun at it.wp Village Pump http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bar/Discussioni/Un_libro_fatto_con_w… What one of us did was to put a review saying "Don't buy this book, it's a copy from Wikipedia". The book was retracted from the website a few days afterwards. Cruccone

Ray Saintonge

12:40 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

David Goodman wrote:

...

It may still be violating moral rights, which are a part of the copyright law even though no penalties are provided. There could also be a case for fraudulent misrepresentation. Another alternative might be for Wikimedians to put together a company that would sell similar books to the public at cost, perhaps on a print on demand basis so as to get the latest versions. Article selection might be the same, and they could even use identical titles for each book, but there would be no deception about where the material comes from. Ec

Renata St

4:47 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

...

Another alternative might be for Wikimedians to put together a company that would sell similar books to the public at cost, perhaps on a print on demand basis so as to get the latest versions. Article selection might be the same, and they could even use identical titles for each book, but there would be no deception about where the material comes from.

Already done: PediaPress.

David Gerard

12:02 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

2009/8/13 David Goodman <dgoodmanny(a)gmail.com>om>:

...

"The contents of this book are reprinted from Wikipedia. Thanks to Dr --- for making Wikipedia content available commercially in printed form, in full observance of copyright requirements. We do this to spread knowledge, after all!" - d.

Gerard Meijssen

9:41 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

Hoi, As long as the books give sufficient indication that they are from Wikipedia, as long as the license requirement is met, this gentlemen is welcome to ask as much as people are willing to pay. If anything this is EXACTLY something that we can do as well. The German Verein did a good job a few years back with publishing its own books. It is fine that you do not like it. When you agitate against this do realise that it has been said often enough that commercial parties are welcome to do this. If you want to do better, you can, and when you feel that it needs to be more clear where the content comes from, you will make that more clear as well. Thanks, GerardM 2009/8/14 Renata St <renatawiki(a)gmail.com>

...

Renata St

1:41 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

...

As long as the books give sufficient indication that they are from Wikipedia, ...

Inside the book -- yes, plenty of indication about copying. But nothing to warn you before you buy. People are buying these books tricked into thinking it's an original content.

David Gerard

1:51 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

2009/8/14 Renata St <renatawiki(a)gmail.com>om>:

...

> As long as the books give sufficient indication that they are from > Wikipedia, ...

...

Inside the book -- yes, plenty of indication about copying. But nothing to warn you before you buy. People are buying these books tricked into thinking it's an original content.

Yuh. Point it out in reviews etc. - d.

Renata St

4:49 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

...

> As long as the books give sufficient indication that they are from > Wikipedia, ...

Inside the book -- yes, plenty of indication about copying. But nothing

warn you before you buy. People are buying these books tricked into

thinking

it's an original content.

Yuh. Point it out in reviews etc.

Exactly, except that there are 2000 such books. Amazon would block me for spamming (irony!) if I attempted to review all of them.

David Gerard

5:20 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

2009/8/14 Renata St <renatawiki(a)gmail.com>om>:

...

> > Inside the book -- yes, plenty of indication about copying. But nothing > to > > warn you before you buy. People are buying these books tricked into > thinking > > it's an original content.

...

> Yuh. Point it out in reviews etc.

...

Exactly, except that there are 2000 such books. Amazon would block me for spamming (irony!) if I attempted to review all of them.

Hah. Put up a blog entry or web page detailing your concern and asking others to help? - d.

Renata St

7:32 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 1:20 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

2009/8/14 Renata St <renatawiki(a)gmail.com>om>:

> > Inside the book -- yes, plenty of indication about copying. But

nothing

> to > > warn you before you buy. People are buying these books tricked into > thinking > > it's an original content.

> Yuh. Point it out in reviews etc.

Exactly, except that there are 2000 such books. Amazon would block me for spamming (irony!) if I attempted to review all of them.

Hah. Put up a blog entry or web page detailing your concern and asking others to help?

Or email to two interested mailing lists?...

Peter Jacobi

19 Aug 19 Aug

9:23 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia

I want to add another aspect, which makes Alphacript a PITA: Their arbitrary selection of author names. From all those contributors of all articles included in their (usually incompetently compiled) selection, they just pick the "best sounding", i.e. realnamish, on the front and into the amazon system. So if you are editing under your real name, e.g. [[de:Benutzer:Florian_Adler]], you can find yourself prominently linked to this scam. I assume some of the affected users have already made Alphscript stop this. I don't find Norbert Dragon anymore on their listings. As a professor of physics he surely wasn't amused to be named as the author of some overpriced compilations of mediocre articles. Regards, Peter

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participants (9)

David Gerard
David Goodman
Gerard Meijssen
Joshua Gay
Marco Chiesa
Nikola Smolenski
Peter Jacobi
Ray Saintonge
Renata St