User talk:PrimeHunter/Alphascript Publishing sells free articles as expensive books

Do we know if anyone buys these? YellowMonkey (cricket photo poll!) paid editing=POV 03:32, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

• I have seen something similar from "Global Vision Publishing House", an outfit in India. bd2412 T 23:05, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
• Yes, see for example the 'out for blood' link on the main page. Asfridhr (talk) 23:14, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm hopeless at linking, so forgive me, but there is (or at least seems to be) justification of what Alphascript are doing here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3K9BPB5RJPDVL/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview Thought it might be useful, in terms of 'balance'? Asfridhr (talk) 23:14, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Can something be added to the VDM Publishing article? Perhaps also Alphascript Publishing can re-direct to the VDM Publishing page? Emptymountains (talk) 11:02, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

I suggest that everyone label alphascript's books as "wikipedia" and some other label such as "alphascript fraud". That should warn some unsuspecting buyers. -- Mecanismo | Talk 21:04, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Total scam, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Frederic%20P.%20Miller "Frederic P. Miller" as editor 17,658 let alone editing he couldn't even possible read the articles. I assume they didn't even publish all books but print on demand. The issue isn't about selling wikipedia on print, but not warning the readers about it and calling themselves as "editor" like they actually editing. We should alert wikipedia foundation immediately. There should be a limit about how the license is misused. Kasaalan (talk) 04:01, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

It seems to me that the Wikimedia Foundation may want to alert Amazon. I hate to suggest "DMCA takedown notice," but if Alphascript/Betascript is abusing the Creative Commons license, it may be appropriate to block the sales effort. However, that's what WM's legal staff is for. —Preceding unsigned comment added by A More Perfect Onion (talk • contribs)

Can you check User talk:Kasaalan/Publisher for the content I build about the case. Kasaalan (talk) 18:33, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

• A comment from a librarian I contacted: "Unfortunately I did purchase the book, not knowing its origin at the time. But I certainly will not patronize this "publisher" again." Another satisfied customer. Fences&Windows 12:17, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Books LLC

Just discovered that there's another publisher that sells books that only contain WP articles: "Books LLC". See [1] or [2] for example. "Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge." *sigh*. Seems they use categories to compile books of related subjects. --Kam Solusar (talk) 12:28, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

See also Talk:2008 New Year Honours#Unattributed use by Books Llc. -84user (talk) 05:18, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

New scam, now Japanese comics (manga)

I was running a search in a Finnish online book store when I found one weird result. Ginga Legend Weed should be out of print because ComicsOne went bankrupt and DrMaster didn't license it. It's a manga by Yoshihiro Takahashi, so why would this "Miller" have the rights to it? But still, there "he" is, selling apparently somekind of bootleg of the first three volumes combined sorry, he's selling the Wikipedia article of it... The publisher is, surprise, surprise, VDM. Here's the Google result page. - Nikukei (talk) 16:30, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Amazon prohibits these books now.

I sell on Amazon. I just got a warning email from Amazon for selling these books.

It read: "We are currently removing a number of listings for recopied media products on Amazon.com, including material obtained from the internet and sold in a printed format. Our records indicate that you have offered this type of product for sale on Amazon.com and you may be affected by this removal. Listed beneath our signature are examples of this item type, though it may not be an exhaustive list of the products we removed."

Both books cited are Alphascript titles! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.188.103.27 (talk) 20:05, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Now over 45,000 "titles" on Amazon!

What's really amusing is what happens if you attempt to post a review of one of these so-called books, warning people that it's nothing but printed-out WP pages: Amazon refuses to post it.

    "Your review could not be posted to the 
    website in its current form. While we 
    appreciate your time and comments, reviews 
    must adhere to the following guidelines:
    http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines"

There's nothing in the guidelines that's violated. Very odd that Amazon not only enables this scam, but actually protects it.

Betascript

People who bought from Alphascript also bought High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! about a railway line to the town of Rugby. Betascript even advertise the book in Japanese. Notice how the cover maintains the noble tradition by depicting the wrong sort of Rugby line. Certes (talk) 21:22, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Ebay volumes

A couple of the Alphabook volumes are available on eBay - [3] and [4] (and possibly others). Jackiespeel (talk) 15:07, 28 September 2021 (UTC)