Re: Search engines, information on the web etc:

Google almost invariably shows Wikipedia among the top links when searching for
something defined. This is unsurprizing, especially since a new article
(recently, on /.) explains more about the Google ranking algorythm. However,
among the links, and sometimes preceding Wikipedia's, is Answers.com, which
quotes exactly the same information as Wikipedia does, but surrounds it with 20x
more advertising. It also quotes Wikipedia as the source. Is this type of use
legal ? I am under the impression that Answers.com is an ad-serving wrapper
script that simply serves Wikipedia articles (possibly cached) surrounded by
copious ads. Shouldn't there be a not-for-profit publication clause in the
Wikipedia content license information ? And, if these isn't, what happens to
other 'open' information, possibly misused in the same way ?

Oddly enough, Wikipedia defines Answers.com as doing exactly what I said it 
does...

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers.com

Huh ? I.o.w., what are the implications for free/open content, and how could
this be controlled (obviously the target site uses the content to sell
advertising and adds no value to it - excepting for the provision of bandwidth).

Peter P.


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