QUOTE(WikiWatch @ Sun 31st October 2010, 6:25am)
These books don't deserve two stars - they deserve no stars. They have ripped off the work of people who edited in good faith, knowing they were contributing to free knowledge. Charging over $30 for a book in which the original editors dont receive a cent however is an absolute disgrace.
Boy, I hope you never find out about the price of science research journals and what authors of the papers those journals publish, are paid. Your head may explode. Did you know that authors sometimes pay journals?
Amazon gets on its high-horse here, but I think the real problem is that Amazon figures it's not getting its fair share of the cut on WP writing when it's published other than on the web. Are they going to refuse to sell e-reader (Kindle) versions of "WP offline"? Or sell them at cost, with no profit for themselves? I don't think so.
The truth of the matter is that authors have been screwed by publishers since the dawn of time, much as is the case with actors and studios, and music/vocal artists and recording companies (until very, very recently, as actors and others have managed to put together strong unions).
Writers of books and essays don't have a strong union. Amazon and Wikipedia thus figure that THEY should have the sole right to screw writers. Who are these other people who want to come between, as publishing middlemen? At $30 they obviously charge too much to be "real" editors! (IMG:
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Er, don't they? (IMG:
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Re-purposing Dalmatia, Amazon.com and dubious sources
