Bogus Books Based on Wiki Searches

[Jan]

I know that a number of the folks here have done work on various Wikipedias so I thought this might be of interest, or rather, outrage.

These folks have decided to create Babylon 5 'books' based on Wikipedia searches.

And some from Star Trek searches.

A few about Stargate.

And so on. Just searching on one of the 'editors' names came up with over 18,000 results.

For *only* $40-$60 bucks each!

At first I pointed and laughed at the idea of books being created from searches but now Amazon has started emailing people who've bought B5 related books to push these things and it occurs to me that since they're supposed to be in stock and shipped from Amazon, it's likely that they're being printed by Amazon's POD arm.

This makes me sick, really. While I realize that it's probably perfectly within Wikipedia's Terms of Use (as far as I can see it is, even making a profit from that material), it's still a travesty.

The only thing I can think to do is post negative reviews on all of the B5 books and I invite anybody else who doesn't like the idea of these leeches profiting from the work of others to do the same.

Anybody care to join me?

Jan

 

[Bones2]

I don't entirely understand. So these are just books of Wikipedia articles selling for $40 each? If so, that's absolutely appalling.

 

[Jan]

As far as I can tell, that's exactly what it is.

Jan

 

[Lindley]

Contact Amazon. Maybe they can't legally remove these guys, but you at least might find someone willing to pull them from the recommendation engine.

 

[Jan]

Anybody have a reliable way of contacting a non-drone at Amazon?

Although I'm pretty sure that it's Amazon's print-on-demand branch that's printing them if there's an order. How else could they be 'in stock' when the Betascript and Alphascript promises 'up-to-the-minute' searches?

Jan

 

[David cgc]

There's an entry for Amazon at GetHuman.

 

[Starbreaker]

Hey, if they can make money tricking people into buying something called Babylon 5 Episodes Characters Sheridan Valen ISN Deathwalker... whatever.

 

[Lindley]

Some stuff here:
http://clicheideas.com/amazon.htm

I tried searching for "Amazon.com Complaint Department", but only came up with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Complaint-Department-Grenade-PINEAPPLE-VERSION/dp/B000PBYMAI

 

[Jan]

Thanks for taking the trouble, Lindley!

Jan

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I actually have heard about this a few months ago, I cannot remember where I read it...but it's apparently so bad, that aside from some of the titles matching the Wikipedia pages, that the pages are literately still formatted in the wiki style of text format (with links, sidebars, dividers, etc...). In some instances, the various tabs and navigational bars are printed off to.

Pretty moronic.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Contact Amazon. Maybe they can't legally remove these guys

Why not? Doesn't Amazon have control over what they list for sale? And if a book like this is obviously a ripoff, can't something be done about it?

 

[Hound of UIster]

This extends to more than B5 or Science Fiction, there is also a bunch of non-fiction books on amazon that consists nothing of copied wiki articles.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Some of these books even appear to have a notice on the cover that *says* it's taken from Wikipedia! What kind of dumbshit would actually fall for this?

 

[ATimson]

Doesn't Amazon have control over what they list for sale? And if a book like this is obviously a ripoff, can't something be done about it?

More importantly, why would Amazon want to do something about it? They're not losing anything significant in hosting costs by listing them, and it's not like they're taking up space in a warehouse...

 

[TheBrew]

Wait, if they are now publishing books based on Wiki articles, does that mean I can now cite Wiki as a book source in research papers?

 

[Steve Roby]

I blogged about these books a few months ago. They're done by a German company, Alphascript, which also started a thesis-publishing division that started selling overpriced reprints of academic theses through Amazon a while back. They're selling a Star Trek thesis for about a hundred bucks; anyone at a university should be able to get a pdf of it through the usual thesis sources for free. And as I understand it, people who allow their theses to be published by Alphascript give up their rights to do anything else with them.

Everything Alphascript does is legal. It's unethical, and I'd never buy anything of theirs or suggest that anyone else do so, but it's legal.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Doesn't Amazon have control over what they list for sale? And if a book like this is obviously a ripoff, can't something be done about it?

More importantly, why would Amazon want to do something about it? They're not losing anything significant in hosting costs by listing them, and it's not like they're taking up space in a warehouse...

What about wikipedia? Don't they care that they're being ripped off?

 

[Jan]

What about wikipedia? Don't they care that they're being ripped off?

Not that I can tell. Their terms of use specify that print and profit are okay. As Steve Roby said, it's unethical but it's legal.

Jan

 

[Steve Roby]

FWIW, from the Alphascript website:

In August 2009 Alphascript publishing was contacted by British daily newspaper „The Guardian” (editor: Alison Flood) – we publish here some parts of the interview:


Q: …do all of Alphascript’s books take their content from Wikipedia?
Alphascript: Yes, since we believe that the quality of the Wikipedia-articles is so good that it is worthwhile creating books with them. Wikipedia themselves give an impulse for this. The articles published on their sites are free in every respect and without any limitations as to further use. All authors participating in texts of Wikipedia know this or should at least know it.
The vice-versa procedure by now seems to have become “normal”. For years Google has been scanning books and published them in internet. Of course there are also protests, but then the rights for the material concerned are still with the author or the publishing house.
There is no discussion regarding digitalization of books – mostly old ones – which are free of rights.

Q: If so, shouldn’t this be made clear in the product description?
Alphascript: It is pointed out in every Alphascript book that contents are Wikipedia articles. Do we now have to write in Amazon-books: “Attention! Books contains Wikipedia!”?
Then other publishing houses would have to point out in their books: “Attention! Book contains nonsense!”, or: “Attention! Book has only sex-scenario!”

Q: What do you intend to do about the customer complaints?
Alphascript: We are of the opinion: Of course you can have all these contents free of charge from Wikipedia, but there is a reason for having bought a book on a specific topic. Under certain circumstances you are more up-to-date with an Alphascript-book instead of buying a book of last year the contents of which are possibly not up-to-date any more.
We do live in rapidly passing times.

Q: It would be great to also find out a bit more about Alphascript itself: what you publish, who you're aiming it at…
Alphascript: We offer our readers a well-founded content, which up to the moment of publication as a book has continuously been updated and controlled. Alphascript publishing is internet in form of a book. There can hardly be a faster process. And this is what we are aiming for.
​

 

[nx1701g]

I wonder if the fictional Civil War hero a kid in my office made up and posted on Wikipedia has a mention in one of these books?