Menstrual Cup book
There is a (very pricey) book about menstrual cups on the market. It’s description claiming “Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.“ Which is causing some concern among people like myself who run websites where this information may be taken from.
You have to ask yourself, why would you pay upwards of $50 (I’ve seen it for sale on Australian sites for over $100) for a book whose contents were taken from wikipedia and other webpages?…. I look at the part of the cover, where it says “High quality content from wikipedia articles” and just laugh. That’s some “high quality” authoring there… (and what’s with the feet photo and superfluous tag words on the front cover?)
The news of this book, and potential copyright theft has caused one cup resource, the “cup charts” Livejournal site to close down, stating that they don’t want their hard work to be stolen for someone else’s profit. In case you’re not aware, website contents, like books, are considered copyrighted to the person who wrote them. This is automatic copyright, not something the author needs to specifically apply. Copying parts of a website, or someone’s images, without their permission, is a breech of copyright. So we’re concerned that the “free sources online” may be our webpages and blogs, which are not actually free to take stuff from.
We don’t know yet if any of our intellectual property has been stolen, and without looking at the book, there’s probably no way to tell. I’ve contacted the publisher, and I’ve purchased a copy of the book, which I’ll be able to review when it arrives (which will take a few weeks, as it’s coming from overseas). It will be interesting to see what fills the 96 pages of this book! and if it’s worth paying such a huge price for information they gathered (stole?) from the internet.
(If you need me, I’ll be printing off 96 pages from wikipedia, binding them into a “high quality” book and selling them for the bargain price of $50 per edition. Buy now for Christmas!)
A menstrual cup is form of reusable menstrual protection. It is inserted into the vagina to collect menstrual fluids. Once in place it forms a seal, preventing blood flowing out of the vagina by collecting it in its “cup” shaped reservoir. Unlike a tampon which absorbs the blood along with the vagina’s natural secretions, a menstrual cup simply holds the fluids until you remove it – so they do not dry out the vagina and do not hold the TSS risk that tampons do.
They hold around 20-30ml, which is for most women will cope with a full day without emptying, and at most perhaps you would need to empty it a few times a day for a very heavy flow. A menstrual cup will last (with proper care) for around 10 years, perhaps longer, so while the initial outlay is high, it pays for itself with savings pretty quick.
This website aims to give information on all the available reusable cups, and provide the latest news. This is a sister site to www.ecomenses.com
