In recent months a flood of so-called books have been appearing in Amazon’s catalogue. VDM Publishing’s imprints Alphascript and Betascript Publishing have listed over 57,000 titles, adding at least 10,000 in the previous month alone. These books are simply collections of linked Wikipedia articles put into paperback form, at a cost of 40 cents a page or more. These books seem to be computer-generated, which explains the peculiar titles noted such as Vreni Schneider: Annemarie Moser-Pröll, FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, Winter Olympic Games, Slalom Skiing, Giant Slalom Skiing, Half Man Half Biscuit
. Such titles do have the marketing effect of turning up in many different searches. There is debate on Wikipedia about whether their ‘VDM Publishing’ page should contain the words ‘fraud’ or scam
. VDM Publishing’s practice of reselling Wikipedia articles appears to be legal, but is ethically questionable. Amazon customers have begun to post 1-star reviews and complain. Amazon’s response to date has been, As a retailer, our goal is to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any item they might be seeking
. The words and pay us
were left out. Amazon carries, as a Googled guess, 2 million different book titles, so VDM Publishing is currently 1/35th of their catalog, and rapidly growing — via Slashdot
When the science writer Simon Singh sat down to write an opinion piece on chiropractors two years ago, he could have had little inkling of the nightmare that lay ahead. Yesterday, after a court of appeal ruling hailed as a resounding victory
for Singh, he has been spared having to stand up in court and prove that the comments that sparked a libel suit from the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) were factually correct — an experience that the three appeal judges compared to an Orwellian ministry of truth
. The landmark ruling will allow the writer, whose battle has become a catalyst for demands for libel law reform, to rely on a fair comment
defence of his statements about chiropractors. It will also strengthen the position of others — from science writers and medical professionals to bloggers — who face libel suits, as the judges made clear the court was not the place to settle scientific controversies
An elaborate scheme to get the husband of a co-worker he was obsessed with locked up in jail, backfired on Ilkka Karttunen, a 48-year from Essex. His plan was to get the husband arrested so that he could have a go at a relationship with the woman, and to do this he broke into the couple’s home while they were sleeping, used their family computer to download child pornography and then removed the hard drive and mailed it anonymously to the police, along with a note that identified the owner
The European Space Agency is moving forward with a plan to land an autonomous spacecraft on the moon by 2017, with the idea a manned vehicle could land there sometime in the future. It’s a mission NASA had on its roadmap before the current budget debate, but such plans seem doomed now
Microsoft uncovered more than 1,800 bugs in Office 2010 by tapping into the unused computing horsepower of idling PCs. Office developers found the bugs by running millions of fuzzing
tests, said Tom Gallagher, senior security test lead with Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group
Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honour that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1.00am (Central Daylight Time) 1 April, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka
Toad Last spring, a group of biologists were studying the mating habits of the common toad (Bufo bufo) in the L’Aquila province of Italy. As temperatures warm each year, male toads gather en masse at small ponds to compete for the affections of females. As part of their study, the scientists ventured out to one particular pond every evening to count the toads and note whether they had laid any new eggs. A few days into their work, something strange happened: the toads scattered. Spawning had only just begun, and where there had been between 80 and 90 male toads for the last few days of March, the first few days of April turned up fewer than ten. Then on 6 April, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit, ravaging L’Aquila province and its capital city of the same name. Hundred of people were killed and thousands injured as buildings that dated to the middle ages crumbled. In a new paper out this evening in Journal of Zoology, the researchers claim this sequence of events is more than just a coincidence. Toads stayed away from the pond for several more days following the quake, before finally returning in force around 15 April. No word on where the toads went, exactly, to flee the disaster. But did the toads sense the coming quake and head for the hills? That’s what the researchers are arguing
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W Bush
realestate.com.au has confirmed its subscriber database was illegally accessed and the matter had been referred to Victoria Police. The popular real estate web site admitted that its mailing list had been used by a third party, which asked people for money to arrange property inspections. The fraudulent email directed consumers to respond directly to a Gmail address, instead of using the agent enquiry tool on realestate.com.au
The ancestors of modern Scottish people left behind mysterious, carved stones that new research has just determined contain the written language of the Picts, an Iron Age society that existed in Scotland from 300 to 843. The highly stylised rock engravings, found on what are known as the Pictish Stones, had once been thought to be rock art or tied to heraldry. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A, instead concludes that the engravings represent the long lost language of the Picts, a confederation of Celtic tribes that lived in modern-day eastern and northern Scotland
Anyone who plays FarmVille knows it is critical to harvest your crops on time. But maybe it’s not as important as administrating the second-largest city in Bulgaria. Dimitar Kerin was voted off a committee assignment by the Plovdiv City Council for his inability to stop tending his virtual crops on the Facebook game during meetings
Yahoo e-mail accounts belonging to foreign journalists appeared to have been hacked and Google’s Chinese search engine was intermittently blocked Tuesday, the latest troubles in China’s heavily censored internet market. The Yahoo accounts of at least three journalists and an analyst became inaccessible over the last few weeks. They were greeted with messages saying, We’ve detected an issue with your account
and were told to contact Yahoo, they said Tuesday. Yahoo technicians told one of the four that his account had been hacked and restored his access, but it was not clear if the other instances were related
Google said it appeared to have inadvertently sparked the blockage of search queries from across China this evening, reassuring users who feared authorities were shutting off all access in response to the internet giant’s decision to close its mainland service. Users had reported that all standard searches on Google’s Hong Kong-based service were failing. But it seems that the introduction of a new search parameter, which by chance included a sensitive three-letter phrase, had triggered an existing keyword filter
Arthur Firstenberg, who says he is hypersensitive to certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, saw the house at the end of a narrow lane as a refuge from physical and neurological symptoms that have plagued him for three decades. It’s been difficult because of my electromagnetic sensitivities,
he said. I had a lot of difficulty finding a house that I could be comfortable in.
So in September 2008, he bought the home on Barela Street, a few blocks from the newly redeveloped downtown rail yard here. But last October, when a friend of his rented a house on the next block that backed up to Firstenberg’s property, the familiar waves of nausea, vertigo, body aches, dizziness, heart arrhythmia and insomnia returned — all, he says, because she was using an iPhone, a laptop computer, a wireless router and dimmer switches. So he sued Monribot in state district court, seeking $530,000 in damages and an injunction to force her to turn off the electronics
Patents on genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer are invalid, ruled a New York federal court today. The precedent-setting ruling marks the first time a court has found patents on genes unlawful and calls into question the validity of patents now held on approximately 2,000 human genes. The ruling follows a lawsuit brought by a group of patients and scientists represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a not-for-profit organization affiliated with Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law
Australia’s planned mandatory internet service provider level internet filter will block Refused Classification (RC) material. Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy says that’s child pornography, pro-bestiality sites, pro-rape websites and material like that
. But it’s actually more than that. The full definition of RC isn’t even described by adding the phrase detailed instruction in crime
which Senator Conroy sometimes mentions. It’s actually any instruction in any crime whatsoever. Since copyright infringement now includes some criminal offences, some technical information on bypassing digital rights management or copy protection is potentially RC. Offline, books about graffiti art have already been Refused Classification, as was a satirical article about shoplifting published in a student newspaper
The potential for further consolidation in the internet provider market has narrowed to a handful companies after Perth-based broadband company iiNet yesterday took out another target in its five-year acquisition strategy. The internet service provider suspended its shares briefly yesterday morning to announce it had paid $40 million for Victorian rival Netspace, ending weeks of speculation about the deal
Data on 3.3 million borrowers was stolen from a nonprofit company that helps with student loan financing. The theft occurred on 20 or 21 March from the headquarters of Educational Credit Management Corp (ECMC), which services loans when student borrowers enter bankruptcy. The data was contained on portable media, said the organisation, which is a dedicated guaranty agency for Virginia, Oregon and Connecticut. The data included names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers but no financial information such as credit card numbers or bank account data, ECMC said in a news release
The US government says it has concerns about Australia’s plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter. The Federal Government wants to force internet service providers to block offensive material, including child pornography and instructions for criminal activity, from overseas web sites. The Government is facing growing pressure from anti-censorship and internet groups to drop the idea. Now the US government has added its voice to those expressing concern
The last days of this dreadful government are being accompanied by an attack on rights and privacy that seems unprecedented during Labour’s 13-year rule. The government is now drawing up plans to amend the Postal Services Act to allow tax inspectors to intercept and open people’s mail before it is delivered. Given the state’s ambitions to collect all communications data this is hardly surprising, but we must ask ourselves how many more rights are seized by government and its agencies before Britain becomes the GDR’s most obvious European imitator. Currently postal workers have the right to intercept suspicious letters and packages and pass them to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and then at an agreed moment the item is opened in front of the addressee. The change in the law will mean that HMRC will be able to open whatever it likes without the addressee being present or being made aware of the interception
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