[Foundation-l] Alphascript Publishing scam

[Gregory Kohs]

> David Gerard said:
>
> ++++++++++++++
>
> 2009/8/13 David Goodman <dgoodmanny at gmail.com>:
>
>> 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.
>
>
> "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.
>
> +++++++++++++++
>
> And David Gerard also says:
>
> ===============
> 2009/8/14 Renata St <renatawiki at gmail.com>:
>
>>> 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.
> ===============
>
> To me, this smacks of an utter disregard for the intent and spirit of
> the free license.   It's the same sort of flippant administrative
> attitude that (nearly) allowed Guy "JzG" Chapman to grossly plagiarize
> my original, freely-licensed work, delete mine from the edit history,
> then prance about claiming that the work was his own, written "ab
> initio".  That made me want to vomit, and now I feel like vomiting
> again.
>
> Sorry to resurrect a thread like this, but I only became aware of the
> phenomenon recently.
>
> To give an example of how such a book is marketed on Amazon:
>
>>>>>>>>
> History of Buddhism (Paperback)
>
> by Frederic P. Miller (Editor), Agnes F. Vandome (Editor), John
> McBrewster (Editor)
>>>>>>>>
>
> These people are not Wikipedia editors.  Is it appropriate and/or
> legal under the terms of the GFDL or the CC-by-SA for a
> freely-licensed work to be "claimed" with a preposition such as "by",
> which by any interpretation of the English language in this usage,
> would connote authorship?  Personally, I don't think it is appropriate
> (thus that nauseous feeling I mentioned earlier).  But, I'm not a
> highly-paid lawyer, so maybe I just don't know better.  I've been in
> situations before where I know I am ethically correct, but helpless in
> the light of the law.
>
> It strikes me that this is something that Creative Commons or other
> organizations with Godwin-like attorneys should be aggressively
> pursuing, but we didn't hear from any of them in the original thread,
> did we?  Mike, could you illuminate this conversation with your
> professional opinion?
>
> Greg
>

Sorry, I didn't edit the subject.