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

[Renata St]

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 at aol.com> wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Renata St <renatawiki at gmail.com>
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>; Wikimedia
> Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at 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_free_articles_as_expensive_books
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)/Archive_20#The_Alphascript-Amazon-Wikipedia_book_hoax<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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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