[WikiEN-l] Possible copyright violation of Wikipedia content byInfoslurp.com

Wed Feb 9 18:57:38 UTC 2005

> My understanding of the GFDL is that it means you could even stand on a
> street corner and sell bound copies of its content for a fee.  Someone
> will undoubtedly correct me if this is wrong.  Free as in speech, not free
> as in beer.

Thanks for the information. So I guess it is not a copyright issue but it
does raise questions about misuse of Google Adsense and Wikipedia content.

On a hunch, I decided to do a search for a phrase from a random Wikipedia
article. I searched for the phrase "new AC alternator on all Fords and the
now-famous Mustang GT" on Google.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22new+AC+alternator+on+all+Fords+and+the+now-famous+Mustang+GT%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
or
http://tinyurl.com/67j67

I got 19 hits. Out of them, 12 display Google AdSense links. I did not
realize that so many sites are using Wikipedia content to collect Google
AdSense revenue.

- Bobby

p.s. Two of the sites are directly loading images off Wikipedia
http://www.xasa.com/wiki/en/wikipedia/f/fo/ford_mustang.html
http://www.conk.com/search/encyclopedia.cgi?q=Ford_Mustang