[WikiEN-l] Google faking semantics

[Mathias Schindler]

On 1/3/07, Gurch <matthew.britton at btinternet.com> wrote:

> So Google has basically created a database of all Wikipedia's infoboxes,
> and is serving up entries from them as search results on its website?
> Does this count as mirroring our content? Are they in compliance with
> whatever rules apply to whatever it is they're doing?

They are extracting mere facts, there is no copyright on facts. US law
(AFAIK) does not know a copyright on databases as such (different in
the EU). They are attributing the source along with a link on the
wikipedia site. IMHO, they are compliant in both the legal and the
moral part.

> Aside from that, something concerns me here. These snippets are
> displayed right at the top of search pages, above the search results,
> even when the Wikipedia article itself is nowhere near the top search
> result. In other words, anyone who manages to sneak the right value in
> at the critical moment when Google is re-indexing the page can achieve
> an effect similar to a [[Googlebomb]], but even more powerful. How long
> before people start craftily changing infobox labels and values in an
> attempt to abuse this?

That would be pretty much pointless. In case you are worrying, you
might want to help bring the "stable version" feature back to life...