Type Lost &Foundry

As I have an interest in all things font, a few recently published books related to letters and numerals recently came to my attention. The first was on the subject of the Arabic Alphabet, and the next on Roman Numerals and finally Mapping Unicode Characters. On closer examination, I discovered that the exclusive source of the contents of these books are articles available free to all, on Wikipedia. As it turns out, these were but three titles among thousands available from Alphascript Publishing. All of their books are comprised of collected Wikipedia articles.

Where Credit is Due
Images of the book covers available on the web (specifically on Amazon) do not acknowledge major (or minor) contributors to the Wikipedia articles reproduced inside. Instead, these three books (published by Alphascript Publishing), only list Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster as Editors.

DIY,FCOL
Let me go back to the fact that these articles are free on Wikipedia. It’s difficult for me to understand plunking down hard earned cash in tough times for a book produced in this manner. It is more practical (i.e.- cheaper, faster, and greener) to just print out Wikipedia articles yourself on the occasion you need a hardcopy because by its very nature, the book will become out-of-date once a contributor makes an edit to one of the articles on Wikipedia.

Copyleft: All Wrongs Reserved
Those who produce works with copyleft licenses regularly make their work freely available without restrictions. And they have my respect. However, I remain unconvinced that Alphascript is not operating in a gray area. The ethics and the legality of Alphascript Publishing to reproduce these books has been debated. If all proper attributions have been made to the authors/contributors, then I concede: it is more a matter of clear labeling and buyer-do-be-aware.