Re: Help, a plateful of plagiarism

[Heinrich Mallison <heinrich.mallison@googlemail.com>]

There was something on a German TV show recently, where they detailed
that the only chance a BUYER has is that of returning the book quickly
enough to be allowed to cancel the buy by German laws.

There is nothing an AUTHOR can do against the books/apps, if his text
is on wikipedia. He MAY be able to go after wikipedia, if the WP
article is a clear case of plagiarism, though. That is, however, often
very hard to prove.

H

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 7:56 PM, Dr Ronald Orenstein
<ron.orenstein@rogers.com> wrote:
> 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?
>