Source of Multiple-Choice Quiz Questions

[chris319]

Does anyone know of a source of multiple-choice quiz questions which are not bound by copyright restrictions?

Thanks.

[alfonzos]

The publishers of Trivial Pursuit were sued by Fred Worth, the author of several trivia books (and The Joker's Wild contestant) because several questions were lifted from his books (the answers were wrong!). Experts believed that Worth would win the case because there was no question that the TP publishers were wrong. The judge surprized everybody ruling against Worth saying that facts can't be copyrighted. Wikipedia

My point is you might be able to use anybody's questions. Then again, I'm no legal expert. Neither is Wikipedia.

[chris319]

The judge was right; facts cannot be copyrighted. However, the bluff answers are not part of the fact, so if I lifted, say, a bunch of WWTBAM questions lock, stock and barrel I fear I could be on legal thin ice.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'232985\' date=\'Dec 25 2009, 02:14 AM\']The judge was right; facts cannot be copyrighted. However, the bluff answers are not part of the fact,[/quote]
And that's really interesting, since in the capacity of my job I have found that the *wrong* answers are often pretty difficult to write, since they go a long way towards setting the difficulty of a question.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'232985\' date=\'Dec 25 2009, 02:14 AM\']The judge was right; facts cannot be copyrighted. However, the bluff answers are not part of the fact, so if I lifted, say, a bunch of WWTBAM questions lock, stock and barrel I fear I could be on legal thin ice.[/quote]I found that the questions from the Millionaire box game are either very undervalued when compared to the show (or even if you knock the difficulty down a few notches, they still seem easy) or worse, aren't all that interesting.

I picked up these books a while ago, and found the difficulty and categories to have a decent span. If you plan to do anything public with them, maybe you should change a wrong answer or three.

[Kevin Prather]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'233333\' date=\'Dec 31 2009, 06:11 PM\']I found that the questions from the Millionaire box game are either very undervalued when compared to the show (or even if you knock the difficulty down a few notches, they still seem easy) or worse, aren't all that interesting.[/quote]
Indeed. The fact that Sega's hedgehog was named Sonic was worth $250,000 in the board game. Incidentally, one of the questions I thought was too easy for $250k, involving the asteroid belt being between Mars and Jupiter, later showed up on the ACTUAL SHOW as a $250,000 question. Is that question actually harder than I think?

[goongas]

[quote name=\'Kevin Prather\' post=\'233433\' date=\'Jan 2 2010, 04:34 PM\'][quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'233333\' date=\'Dec 31 2009, 06:11 PM\']I found that the questions from the Millionaire box game are either very undervalued when compared to the show (or even if you knock the difficulty down a few notches, they still seem easy) or worse, aren't all that interesting.[/quote]
Indeed. The fact that Sega's hedgehog was named Sonic was worth $250,000 in the board game. Incidentally, one of the questions I thought was too easy for $250k, involving the asteroid belt being between Mars and Jupiter, later showed up on the ACTUAL SHOW as a $250,000 question. Is that question actually harder than I think?
[/quote]

Millionaire tends to overvalue their science questions greatly.

[ten96lt]

[quote name=\'goongas\' post=\'233488\' date=\'Jan 3 2010, 03:57 PM\'][quote name=\'Kevin Prather\' post=\'233433\' date=\'Jan 2 2010, 04:34 PM\'][quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'233333\' date=\'Dec 31 2009, 06:11 PM\']I found that the questions from the Millionaire box game are either very undervalued when compared to the show (or even if you knock the difficulty down a few notches, they still seem easy) or worse, aren't all that interesting.[/quote]
Indeed. The fact that Sega's hedgehog was named Sonic was worth $250,000 in the board game. Incidentally, one of the questions I thought was too easy for $250k, involving the asteroid belt being between Mars and Jupiter, later showed up on the ACTUAL SHOW as a $250,000 question. Is that question actually harder than I think?
[/quote]

Millionaire tends to overvalue their science questions greatly.
[/quote]
I think its the Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader syndrome, they probably think nobody remembers it from when they were in school. I learned it in 4th grade and never heard that in school since.