What Can Be Done About Whole Answers Cut And Pasted From Wikipedia?

[Pedro]

I am seeing otherwise good answers that have been cut and pasted from articles in Wikipedia.I assume this violates the Askville Terms of Service, which require that all rights to content posted be owned or controlled by the submitter. Is that right?Should this be reported as abuse, and how?(I am not seeing the "Report Abuse" link in answers to questions I have answered.)

[Hyman]

No, as long as it is sourced somewhere It is 'technically' cheating, but as far as this community goes, it isn't and shouldn't be. people should cite their sources, but its not really a big deal, wikipedia isn't making money off of its knowledge... etc. iheartwars 98 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Tringad]

I don't think that it violates the terms of service, but, clearly, you can vote wrong, or lame The terms of service state:You may post content on this site, so long as the content is not: Illegal Obscene Threatening Defamatory Hateful Invasive of privacy Infringing of intellectual property rights(such as copyright and trademark rights) Racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable Otherwise harmful or injurious to third parties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License0. PREAMBLE The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others. This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software. We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.   Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License awarulz 98 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[MacAlpin]

I don't believe it's abuse so long as they credit the source in the "sources" box at the bottom of the page. If they are not giving credit where credit is due, then it's up to you as to whether or not to report it.  I, personally, would not. Rickisgirl 98 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Ignado]

But Is It Really a Violation? I must admit that I haven't actually read the terms of service, but I'm of the opinion that copying and pasting articles from Wikipedia or other sources accessible on the internet is not wrong in this case. The people asking questions on Askville could very well search for the answers themselves, but obviously are looking to have it done for them. Sometimes the questions asked require one's opinion or viewpoint, but often the questions require cold, hard, facts which could only be found in some sort of publication. Personally, I try to add my own thoughts or experiences to my answers, along with the facts, but admittedly it does take more time and effort, and perhaps that is why the cut and paste method is so popular. Sources: opinion new2you 98 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.