• Business
  • Life
  • Celebrity
  • Sport
  • Blog
  • Auto
  • Tech
Stories from SWNS
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Karim Tahseen Khayat: Seeds Training Services and Digital Services

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    From HID to LED

    From HID to LED

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Business
  • Life
    • Celebrity
  • Tech
    Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

    Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

    4 IT Services Trends in 2022

    4 IT Services Trends in 2022

    Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

    Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

    Online casinos: A trend that grows daily

    Online casinos: A trend that grows daily

    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Review

    The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay on the Nintendo Switch

    Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Review

    macOS Sierra review: Mac users get a modest update this year

    Hands on: Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 review

    The Last Guardian Playstation 4 Game review

    Intel Core i7-7700K ‘Kaby Lake’ review

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Living The Fantasy: An Interview With The Serpent Calls Author Christopher Bramley

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Sharp As A Razor: An Interview With Atheist Author Harry Margulies

    Karim Tahseen Khayat: Seeds Training Services and Digital Services

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    Dig into Temporarily Insane by Carl Borgen

    From HID to LED

    From HID to LED

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Dying woman granted final wish to be reunited with her beloved horse and pet dogs one last time

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Business
  • Life
    • Celebrity
  • Tech
    Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

    Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

    4 IT Services Trends in 2022

    4 IT Services Trends in 2022

    Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

    Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

    Online casinos: A trend that grows daily

    Online casinos: A trend that grows daily

    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    Artificial Intelligence and Online Casino Games

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    What are the Latest Digital Marketing Trends?

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Review

    The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay on the Nintendo Switch

    Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Review

    macOS Sierra review: Mac users get a modest update this year

    Hands on: Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 review

    The Last Guardian Playstation 4 Game review

    Intel Core i7-7700K ‘Kaby Lake’ review

No Result
View All Result
Stories from SWNS
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Wikipedia articles copied and sold as books by US publisher

by
February 8, 2011
in News
5
0
SHARES
31
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

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

Wikipedia articles copied and sold as books by US publisher

Publishing company Books LLC is offering around 315,000 books for sale on Amazon on thousands of popular subjects.

British book lovers have paid up to £20 for the titles only to discover the content is stolen from the free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

While the American branch of Amazon explains LLC books only contain Wikipedia extracts, Amazon.co.uk has no such warning.

The company is not breaking the law as there is no copyright on Wikipedia material as long as the author is credited.

But Amazon is now investigating after receiving several complaints and are considering placing an advisory on future Books LLC listings.

One customer, named only as Kevin, thought he had found a rare collection of short stories by his favourite author only to find it was ”useless” Wikipedia extracts.

He said: ”In the run up to Christmas I went on the Amazon website and ordered several Jon Wyndham books.

”One I didn’t recognise, it was a collection of short stories with titles I hadn’t come across before.

”I added it to my other books and it duly arrived. Where as all the others were fine this was a very odd publication with extracts from Wikipedia.

”I couldn’t understand at all why anyone would want to buy that sort of book, it wouldn’t be any use to any one.”

The books produced by LLC cover a wide range of subjects, from study guides to books on the Somerset and Dorset joint railway, supermarkets in the UK and Southend United FC.

Brit Shelagh Watkins was stunned when she found a book on Amazon with her name on the cover after posting her research for free on Wikipedia.

Shelagh said she was astonished to find the 30 page book being sold for £9.93.

She said: ”It seems to be vanity publishing at its worst. I did a search on my name on Amazon and this book appeared with my name on the front.

”I did a search on Books LLC and learned that they publish information gathered from Wikipedia.

”The Shelagh Watkins page on Wikipedia is long gone but the information from that page is now in print.”

Books LLC states on its website that in accordance to copyright law it may use Wikipedia material freely as long as the online encyclopaedia is credited.

It states: ”Our Wiki books are bought mainly by libraries and people who prefer to read a paperback than a computer screen.

”We only charge for compiling, editing, indexing, typesetting, designing, printing, binding and shipping of books – not for the content.”

Articles on Wikipedia are free ”to copy, distribute and transmit” as long as the author or licensor is credited.

There is currently nothing on Amazon to indicate Books LLC publications are compiled from Wikipedia articles.

A spokesperson for Amazon confirmed they are investigating the matter.

Tags: AmazonBooksOnlineWikipedia
Previous Post

Mum left outraged after school bans Penguin chocolate bars

Next Post

Dancing on Ice host Philip Schofield wades in to Jason Gardiner ‘bullying’ row

Next Post

Dancing on Ice host Philip Schofield wades in to Jason Gardiner ‘bullying’ row

Comments 5

  1. Gregory Kohs says:
    11 years ago

    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?

    Reply
    • MYAR! says:
      9 years ago

      Wikia is a wiki hosting site, the for-profit arm of Wikipedia.

      Reply
  2. Fred says:
    11 years ago

    This is legal, but is a sharp practice when done without a clear disclosure of what the book will consist of. Amazon should probably not even permit such abortions to be sold on its site.

    The service is useful for creating a book from related or interesting Wikipedia articles, but not as a surprise foisted off on the unsuspecting.

    Reply
  3. Gpirickzi says:
    11 years ago

    The Alphascript and Betascript books issue was raised over a year ago on Wikipedia and nothing seems to have been done about it since.

    Reply
  4. Huntster says:
    11 years ago

    While Wikipedia editors know very well that their contributions may be reused in a form such as this, such practices have been long frowned upon by the community to various degrees (I know I strongly dislike it). Unfortunately, so long as these publishers obey the license agreements, they can carry on publishing, but it would be a very good idea if Amazon would make it clear that the content being published is just a copy/paste of other’s work.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected test

  • 114 Followers
  • 60k Followers
  • 172k Subscribers
  • 23.6k Followers
  • 99 Subscribers
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Women love cheesy chat up lines, a study has revealed

Top 20 cheesy chat-up lines ladies really love

March 5, 2014
The top ten most well-known bingo phrases

The top ten most well-known bingo phrases

January 21, 2014
The horses thunder towards a jump at the Grand National

Amazing racehorse names which never made it

April 23, 2014
HGH Injections Brands: Which Ones Are Best?

HGH Injections Brands: Which Ones Are Best?

January 14, 2019
Chris Fear, 33, outside the Coral betting shop which is refusing to pay out on his 485/1 winning bet

Boycott Coral! Bookmaker faces protest after refusing to pay out on a football fan’s 485/1 bet

184
Women love cheesy chat up lines, a study has revealed

Top 20 cheesy chat-up lines ladies really love

147
Women feel invisible to the opposite sex at the age of 51, researchers found

Women begin feeling invisible to men ‘when they turn 51’

138
UKIP candidate claims Jews murdered each other in the Holocaust in masterplan to create State of Israel

UKIP candidate claims Jews murdered each other in the Holocaust in masterplan to create State of Israel

105
How Amazon changed the way we shop

How Amazon changed the way we shop

June 29, 2022
Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

June 27, 2022
4 IT Services Trends in 2022

4 IT Services Trends in 2022

June 24, 2022
Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

June 15, 2022

Recent News

How Amazon changed the way we shop

How Amazon changed the way we shop

June 29, 2022
Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

June 27, 2022
4 IT Services Trends in 2022

4 IT Services Trends in 2022

June 24, 2022
Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

Top 5 New Technologies in the Payment Industry For 2022

June 15, 2022
SWNS

SWNS all rights reserved. Copyright 2020

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Auto
  • Blog
  • Business
  • Celebrity
  • Gaming
  • Life
  • Lifestyle
  • News
  • Pictures
  • Property
  • Review
  • Sport
  • SWNS
  • Tech
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Recent News

How Amazon changed the way we shop

How Amazon changed the way we shop

June 29, 2022
Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

Which elements should you have for a good landing page?

June 27, 2022
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

Real Fix is a trading style of South West News Service Limited.
Copyright © 2020 South West News Service Limited.

No Result
View All Result
  • Business
  • Life
  • Celebrity
  • Sport
  • Blog
  • Auto
  • Tech

Real Fix is a trading style of South West News Service Limited.
Copyright © 2020 South West News Service Limited.