I brought Books LLC to the attention of Wikipedia. They explained the legal position concerning reproducing creative commons license material from Wikipedia as follows:
Dear Eddie Brennan,
Thank you for your email.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention; the URLs and redirects ensure that attribution is given, so as long as the book is also released under the same license it is legally valid.
Yours sincerely,
Oliver Keyes
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Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org
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Disclaimer: all mail to this address is answered by volunteers, and responses are not to be considered an official statement of the Wikimedia Foundation. For official correspondence, please contact the Wikimedia Foundation by certified mail at the address listed on http://www.wikimediafoundation.org
So there you go. Fair enough if the license permits free reproduction with an obligation to disclose. Seems like a license to exploit the naive collector if you ask me. In addition Wiki's email disclaimer is somewhat wide-ranging, don’t you think? Here’s our response to the position but it's not to be considered as an official response. Mmm, very Lewis Carroll.
I posted a very flippant review on Amazon which I doubt they'll print. If it's not up within 48 hours, I'll post it here to give you a wee laugh. Likewise, I'll let you know if Amazon report back with a final determination. At this time they have acknowledged my complaint and they say:
Dear Customer
Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.
In addition to our large selection of items, one of our aims is to provide a convenient and efficient service and I realise that we have not met that standard in this case. Please accept our sincere apologies.
I understand your concern that the contents of the book you have received were from Wikipedia.
The issues that you have mentioned will be forwarded to the appropriate department for consideration. Rest assured that this issue will be taken care and resolved as soon as possible.
Thank you for sending us your comments. This kind of feedback is invaluable to us, as it helps us continue to improve our website and provide better service to all of our customers....
It goes on with a form letter about returns etc. However, I think my rest is well assured. The "appropriate department" - impressive! Sounds rather scary in itself both like the title of a Steven King novel or one all powerful nameless unit in a massive bureaucratic maze of Amazonian departmental offices!
I hope that Amazon at least get Books LLC to adequately describe what they're selling. Then I'd feel I had accomplished my crusade. "Snap out of it, Eddie," booms the voice of my conscience, “You’ve taken this all way too personally! Get out more!"
Phew. I'll sleep now.
Health, peace and happiness from Bonnie Scotland.
Eddie – grrr.
