The main issue is *deception*. There is no disclaimer anywhere (except inside the book) that this is a copy from Wikipedia or somewhere else. People are tricked into believing that this is original content by the three listed editors. It almost got tricked myself... and it came out that I wrote 13 articles out of 48 included in that book. I figured something is fishy only because I recognized the titles. I would espect average Joe, not intimately familiar with Wikipedia, to fall for that. Especially when you see another happy customer rating it five stars for "great collection of information"...
I am not objecting to publishing Wikipedia. If someone wants to put an honest effort into producing Wikipedia CDs/DVDs/books -- more power to them. But please label in big clear letters "copied from Wikipedia" on the cover for everyone to see. I know German Wikipedia was published on a DVD -- I have zero objections to that. I also know that the "book extension" to mediawiki was added exactly for this purpose. But in this particular case I think it's rather abusive.
Renata
On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:22 PM, wjhonson@aol.com wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: Renata St renatawiki@gmail.com To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 3:10 pm Subject: [WikiEN-l] Alphascript Publishing: 1900+ copy&pasted books from Wikipedia
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 wa rning that what this is....
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:PrimeHunter/Alphascript_Publishing_sells_f...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)/Archive_...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28miscellaneous%29/Archive_20#The_Alphascript-Amazon-Wikipedia_book_hoax 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".>> _______________________________________________
Renata I'm not sure to what you're objecting. Our contents are republishable. The author is certainly free to rate his own work five stars. What's the issue here?
Will Johnson
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Renata St wrote:
I am not objecting to publishing Wikipedia. If someone wants to put an honest effort into producing Wikipedia CDs/DVDs/books -- more power to them. But please label in big clear letters "copied from Wikipedia" on the cover for everyone to see. I know German Wikipedia was published on a DVD -- I have zero objections to that. I also know that the "book extension" to mediawiki was added exactly for this purpose. But in this particular case I think it's rather abusive.
Renata
Wading into this discussion with a firesuit, I'd like to point out that my own experience in publishing a book based on content from a Wikimedia project (in my case it was the print publication of the Wikijunior Big Cats book on Wikibooks) I had a pretty nasty response from the WMF board in regards to the use of any Wikimedia trademark that I am gun shy from even mentioning that the content might have even a mention of a Wikimedia "trademark" like "Wikipedia".
I'll admit that I made some mistakes in creating that book, including an assumption that the WMF could be listed as one of the "authors" and the nebulous issue of the use of the working title of the book on Wikibooks, which used the name "Wikijunior" prominently on the cover (presumably one of the invariant sections under the GFDL.... depending on how you interpreted that clause). Even so, the deliberate actions of the WMF board in this case killed this particular effort to independently publish on paper content from at least one Wikimedia project.
I acknowledge that about the only real asset that the WMF has to work with in terms of fund raising is the licensing of their trademarks. Unfortunately, even now, the formal WMF policies in terms of when and where these trademarks might legitimately be used by 3rd parties without formally entering into a legal contract with the WMF is quite ambiguous and more akin to wondering what the legal limits of using any commercial trademark like "Coca-Cola" might be (is this even an illegal use of trademark)?
From this experience, it is to me no small wonder that somebody trying to republish content from Wikipedia might even have some formal legal advise to simply not even mention that the content came from Wikipedia or any other Wikimedia website, and try to abide by the most strict interpretation of the content licensing (GFDL/CC-by-SA, ect.) that does exist.
In my case, I would like to acknowledge the role of the WMF and the specific projects like Wikipedia, Wikinews, or Wikibooks that publications like this came from. But once burned, it becomes hard to come back and try again.
No, I am not affiliated with Alphascript either, although it sounds like something I wouldn't mind trying to duplicate at some point in the future. As I said, I even tried.
-- Robert Horning ____________________________________________________________ Workers Compensation Legal Advice. Click here http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2241/fc/BLSrjpYbk8p42wmusnomBznPalOWF...
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org