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> Wikipedia articles copied and sold as books by US publisher : Small World News Service, Well, Duh …
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post Tue 8th February 2011, 11:33am
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Wikipedia articles copied and sold as books by US publisher

Small world News Service
An American company is copying articles directly from Wikipedia and printing them as books to sell to unsuspecting British readers. …
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Jon Awbrey
post Tue 8th February 2011, 2:02pm
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QUOTE(Newsfeed @ Tue 8th February 2011, 6:33am) *

Wikipedia articles copied and sold as books by US publisher

Small World News Service
An American company is copying articles directly from Wikipedia and printing them as books to sell to unsuspecting British readers. …


And the nice thing is — they can sell a new edition tomorrow …

and tomorrow … and tomorrow … and tomorrow …

Jon tongue.gif
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thekohser
post Tue 8th February 2011, 2:06pm
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Comment by Gregory Kohs:
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I complained vigorously to Amazon about this phenomenon (it was with a differently-named publisher, "Alphascript"), and Amazon was silent -- indifferent to the scam being foisted on customers. Then I remembered, Amazon is a $10 million investor in Wikia, Inc., which is the for-profit arm of Wikipedia, both co-founded by the unscrupulous Jimmy Wales. Amazon wouldn't want to tarnish its $10 million Wikia bankroll, would it?
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lilburne
post Tue 8th February 2011, 2:16pm
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Meanwhile in another part of the interweb ....
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post Tue 8th February 2011, 3:42pm
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QUOTE(lilburne @ Tue 8th February 2011, 9:16am) *

Meanwhile in another part of the interweb ....


Couldn't find the "New Topic" button, Lil?
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post Wed 9th February 2011, 8:04am
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[url="http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHrOj_ZkRtSx0EXK-C_j5SrMEaCKg&url=http://www.metro.co.uk/news/854969-wikipedia-entries-copied-and-sold-as-books"][img]http://nt1.ggpht.com/news/tbn/Uc1LOWpPz-y_1M/6.jpg[/img]
Metro[/url]
<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />[b]Wikipedia entries copied and sold as books[/b]
Metro
A US publisher is copying and pasting Wikipedia encyclopedia entries and selling them in book form for up to £10 apiece. US company Books LLC packages ...



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post Wed 9th February 2011, 10:09am
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There is also another publisher of wikipedia content going by the company names Fort Press and Hockfield Press. Their homepage is here, giving little information away. They have aggressively published over 800 titles between September 2010 and January 2011. Amazon has only just started picking them up but you can find more titles on other sites like Bookdepository.com and Booktopia etc. Titles go by the name eg. "United in Death by Car Crash", "United in Death by Assassination", "United in Death by Combined Drug Intoxication", "Off the Record Guide to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (Ufc)", "Off the Record Guide to Hollywood" etc. They state inside the books:

"This book was created and put into distribution by a team of dedicated editors using open source and proprietary publishing tools. One of the advantages to the way we publish books is that our content is up to date and written by dedicated subject matter experts from all over the world. By adding a layer of screening and curatorial attention to this material, we are able to offer a book that is relevant, informative and unique."

Unlike Alphascript and Betascript there appears to be no notice on the front of the books specifically stating it is Wikipedia content.
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