[Taxacom] Copyright Infringement by "Nabu Press"
Scott L. Gardner
slg at unl.edu
Thu Mar 29 16:13:35 CDT 2012
This is important! Scott Gardner
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi, all. Apologies for crossposting, but this is a major
announcement. Just by chance, I noticed a publication on which I was
a co-author, the original citation for which is
Engel, M.S., Brooks, R.W., Yanega, D. (1997) New genera and
subgenera of augochlorine bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Scientific
Papers, Natural History Museum, University of Kansas 5: 1-21
has been republished by someone called "*Nabu Press"* and is being
sold on Amazon.
_http://www.amazon.com/genera-subgenera-augochlorine-bees-Hymenoptera/dp/1179465210/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332967903&sr=1-22_
<http://www.amazon.com/genera-subgenera-augochlorine-bees-Hymenoptera/dp/1179465210/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332967903&sr=1-22> (with
reversed authorship sequence)
Their claim that this publication is from before 1923 is patently false.
I then noticed that the same company, Nabu Press, has reproduced a
large number of scientific publications that are presumably not
public domain, but that they universally claim to be published
before 1923 - this one, for example, by E.O. Wilson:
_http://www.amazon.com/true-army-ants-Indo-Australian-Hymenoptera/dp/1174547839/ref=sr_1_64?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970114&sr=1-64_
<http://www.amazon.com/true-army-ants-Indo-Australian-Hymenoptera/dp/1174547839/ref=sr_1_64?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970114&sr=1-64>
or this one by Howard Evans:
_http://www.amazon.com/taxonomic-Nearctic-belonging-Pompilini-Hymenoptera/dp/1245166778/ref=sr_1_23?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332968317&sr=1-23_
<http://www.amazon.com/taxonomic-Nearctic-belonging-Pompilini-Hymenoptera/dp/1245166778/ref=sr_1_23?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332968317&sr=1-23>
these two by Roy Snelling:
_http://www.amazon.com/revision-honey-genus-Myrmecocystus-Hymenoptera/dp/1174538600/ref=sr_1_63?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-63_
<http://www.amazon.com/revision-honey-genus-Myrmecocystus-Hymenoptera/dp/1174538600/ref=sr_1_63?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-63>
_http://www.amazon.com/Studies-California-ants-Stenamma-Hymenoptera/dp/1174597453/ref=sr_1_70?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-70_
<http://www.amazon.com/Studies-California-ants-Stenamma-Hymenoptera/dp/1174597453/ref=sr_1_70?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-70>
This one by Denis Brothers:
_http://www.amazon.com/Phylogeny-classification-Hymenoptera-reference-Mutillidae/dp/1174555939/ref=sr_1_65?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-65_
<http://www.amazon.com/Phylogeny-classification-Hymenoptera-reference-Mutillidae/dp/1174555939/ref=sr_1_65?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-65>
this one by Mark Moffett:
_http://www.amazon.com/Revision-genus-Myrmoteras-Hymenoptera-Formicidae/dp/1174559136/ref=sr_1_66?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-66_
<http://www.amazon.com/Revision-genus-Myrmoteras-Hymenoptera-Formicidae/dp/1174559136/ref=sr_1_66?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-66>
and this one by Jim Carpenter:
_http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-species-subfamily-Masarinae-Hymenoptera/dp/1174580674/ref=sr_1_68?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-68_
<http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-species-subfamily-Masarinae-Hymenoptera/dp/1174580674/ref=sr_1_68?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-68>
and one by Dave Grimaldi:
_http://www.amazon.com/rediscovered-primitive-ants-Hymenoptera-relationships/dp/1174789123/ref=sr_1_72?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-72_
<http://www.amazon.com/rediscovered-primitive-ants-Hymenoptera-relationships/dp/1174789123/ref=sr_1_72?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332970174&sr=1-72>
or this:
_http://www.amazon.com/Catalog-hymenoptera-America-north-Mexico/dp/1175126756/ref=sr_1_21?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332968317&sr=1-21_
<http://www.amazon.com/Catalog-hymenoptera-America-north-Mexico/dp/1175126756/ref=sr_1_21?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332968317&sr=1-21> originally
published by the Smithsonian Institution (I doubt they would take
the matter lightly!)
and this 2005 publication from Gary Coovert via the Ohio Biological
Survey:
_http://www.amazon.com/The-ants-Ohio-Hymenoptera-Formicidae/dp/1174790369/ref=sr_1_28?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332969779&sr=1-28_
<http://www.amazon.com/The-ants-Ohio-Hymenoptera-Formicidae/dp/1174790369/ref=sr_1_28?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332969779&sr=1-28>
and dozens more.
AND THIS IS JUST SEARCHING ON THE KEYWORD HYMENOPTERA!!! Every Order
or family name I type in to Amazon's search engine, not just of
insects, but of all animals or plants, generates DOZENS of Nabu
Press publications. Many are indeed pre-1923 publications (including
Linnaeus!), but many are NOT.
Also, keep your eyes peeled for similar publications by "General
Books, LLC" like this one:
_http://www.amazon.com/Systematics-genus-Mimosestes-Coleoptera-Bruchidae/dp/1235854345/ref=sr_1_104?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332972406&sr=1-104_
<http://www.amazon.com/Systematics-genus-Mimosestes-Coleoptera-Bruchidae/dp/1235854345/ref=sr_1_104?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332972406&sr=1-104> -
which, being a reprint of a USDA publication, might actually be a
public domain document, and therefore not a copyright violation -
but that doesn't mean all such works are valid under copyright law.
Obviously, we have to react, but we also have to be careful to know
what is or is not legal. It would be interesting to know, for
certain, which of the works I link above are or are not public
domain works.
This is a major scam, presumably pulling in large amounts of money,
selling reprints of copyrighted works that are probably authored by
nearly every publishing author on these mailing lists. I urge anyone
who has published anything, ever, to search on Amazon to see if
their works have been illegally reprinted by Nabu Press. They're
very easy to spot: a thumbnail of the cover showing some landscape
photo, often combined with a 2010 or 2011 publication date. A little
information on this "publisher" is on Wikipedia:
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BiblioBazaar_
We need to get EVERYONE affected by this to write to Amazon and put
a stop to this.
On Amazon's copyright claims page
(_http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_cou?nodeId=508088#copyright_
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_cou?nodeId=508088>)
they ask for:
---------
An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act
on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been
infringed upon;
A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is
located on the site, including the auction ID number, if applicable;
Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address;
A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the
disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or
the law;
A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above
information in your notice is accurate and that you are the
copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
--------
It is IMPERATIVE that the actual copyright holders contact Amazon
about this issue! Unless you can satisfy the above checklist, it is
presumably not worth writing to them. The given address is:
Copyright Agent
_Amazon.com_ <http://amazon.com/> Legal Department
P.O. Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108
phone: (206) 266-4064
fax: (206) 266-7010
e-mail: _copyright at amazon.com_ <mailto:copyright at amazon.com>
I might be overstating the issue by saying this, but I think the
scientific community has to take a stand on this NOW, and push the
legal aspects as far as they will go. We can't allow a precedent
like this to go unchallenged; this has to be stopped, as soon as
possible, as publicly as possible, to make it clear that no one can
go around pulling crap like this and get away with it. For any one
of us authors, or publishers, the loss may be negligible, but this
company is apparently intent on reprinting every single scientific
paper in history (not just those which are legally in the public
domain), and the cumulative damage could be enormous.
You might want to pass this along to your colleagues working on
other disciplines; I have yet to find any taxonomic group that has
not had *recent* works reprinted by Nabu Press, and the odds that
all of these are genuinely public domain seem impossibly small.
Please don't ignore this. I'm not one to go around spreading rumors
or chain mails or such. This is genuine, and the scale of it boggles
the mind.
Sincerely,
--
Doug Yanega
Dept. of Entomology
Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314
skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315
(standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
_http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html_
<http://cache.ucr.edu/%7Eheraty/yanega.html>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the
true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
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