Re: Help, a plateful of plagiarism

[Dr Ronald Orenstein <ron.orenstein@rogers.com>]

There are also a lot of apps for iPhone - some of which are not free - that 
essentially are collectors of Wikipedia articles, usually attributed to their 
source. I do not know the legal status of these, but at least they seem more 
honest than books that are simply collections of Wikipedia articles, some of 
which are sold at astonishingly high prices without making it clear what their 
source is (There was a discussion of one of these on a non-scientific list I 
subscribe to just a week or do ago). I would not be in the least surprised if 
one or the other of these stirs up some legal action, so if you are interested 
in a legal remedy you may want to be sure first of all that someone else isn't 
already paying their lawyer to do the same thing. 

For starters have a look at:

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights
Ronald Orenstein 
1825 Shady Creek Court
Mississauga, ON
Canada L5L 3W2

On 2010-12-01, at 1:35 PM, Andreas Johansson <andreasj@gmail.com> wrote:

> Selling (unattributed) WP articles in book format is a business model
> that, depressingly enough, seems to have some success. I don't know
> what you can do about it in legal terms, but writing an Amazon review
> condemning the thing shouldn't hurt.
> 
> On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 7:29 PM, K and T Dykes <ktdykes@arcor.de> wrote:
>> I've just been looking at Amazon Books for Xmas present ideas (for me), and
>> this led me to come across something called Cynodonts... published by Books
>> Llc (
>> http://www.amazon.de/Cynodonts-Eucynodontia-Oligokyphus-Tritylodontidae-Probelesodon/dp/1155343786/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291226159&sr=8-1
>> ) .  You even get an excerpt to whet your appetite for me.  The writing
>> style is pleasingly informal.
>> 
>> "Among the first and most basal of the eucynodonts was Cynognathus. This
>> wolf-sized predator had a nearly worldwide distribution. About 90% of its
>> lower jaw was accounted for by a single tooth-bearing bone called the
>> dentary. Its teeth were differentiated, which enabled them to perform
>> several functions, including tearing and chewing. A crocodile tears at its
>> prey, but it can't chew. It's an effective hunter, but a wasteful and messy
>> eater. The ear of Cynognathus contained a solitary small bone for hearing,
>> (the stapes)."
>> 
>> It's also remarkably similar to my webpage content, and even more similar to
>> the Wikipedia page which states it's largely derived from my page.  They're
>> even flinging in my jokes!
>> 
>> I don't know what kind of help I might be asking for, seeing as I'm
>> presently too flabbergasted by what I've just seen.
>> Trevor
>> 
>> Mesozoic eucynodonts, an internet directory
>> http://home.arcor.de/ktdykes/meseucaz.htm
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Andreas Johansson
> 
> Why can't you be a non-conformist just like everybody else?