[xirium]

It is rumoured that some encyclopedias give biographies of ficticious people to enforce collective copyright. This wouldn't concern you if wanted information about a historical figure. However, it would be very problematic if you worked for a rival encyclopedia or wanted to make your own website of the encyclopedia.

[nertzy]

Dictionaries have long done the same thing with regard to definitions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_trap

[xirium]

I didn't know that dictionaries also do it. Nor did I know that fake entries were also known as mountweazels (after the surname of a ficticious entry) or nihilartikels. How very cromulent ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromulent ).