crbateman
09-17-2014, 09:56 AM
Hello all,
Let me scramble awkwardly onto my soapbox for a minute...
The modern print-on-demand publishing movement of recent years is certainly a godsend to many authors who have something that needs to be said, but not the resources to publish through the very expensive mainstream publishers. I love that their thoughts, experiences and stories can now have their day.
But there is also the other side of the coin. The new technology has also birthed a market for the exploitation-for-profit of public-domain information, such as that contained online in Wikipedia and its peers. There are dozens of new book titles appearing on the market that are nothing more than "info-harvesting". They are the exact same information, now regurgitated and repackaged, that any of us can see for free with just a little searching on Wikipedia, only some of these titles are going for up to $70.00 a copy!
There is nothing illegal about this; it's not plagiarism or copyright infringement, as all info on Wikipedia may be utilized freely in the public domain, but it does make it important for the consumer (that's us, y'all) to be aware of what we are buying, and not to harbor expectations of new and groundbreaking concepts when we plunk down our hard-earned coin. It's just a good idea to look closely when you are considering a book from "publishers" like @lphascript, Books LLC, Bookvika or Webster's Digital Services.
In the soon-to-be-reincarnated Aikido Journal Bibliography, I will be identifying specifically those titles affected with a "Public Domain Information Compilation" tag. The listings database has been completely updated, even to include Kindle and Nook titles. We are now at over 400 listings, and growing almost daily. Look for it to go live soon...
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming... ;) Clark
SeiserL
09-17-2014, 04:57 PM
Looking forward to it ...
crbateman
09-18-2014, 10:11 PM
Looking forward to it ...
Thank you, my friend... Stan and I hope it will be a resource that is of use to many...