Are these auto-generated Facebook pages?

Very bizarre.

If you could somehow.. 'steal' that page it could be very profitable. I wonder if Facebook know who originally created it anyway?>

Many of the pages have nothing on them, and many just have some content pulled from wikipedia on them.

They seem to be auto-generated pages created by FB when people type things into their profile interest areas that aren't matched by anything else on FB.

Take a look at this page, for example:

Stargate | Facebook

It's supposedly about the TV show "Stargate SG-1". There are images there that link to pages of the various actors in the show.

But they're all nothing but content from Wikipedia!

They DO show up in Google, but not in the top 20 or so.

Maybe this is related to the new profile update?

These are pages that are created when people insert "helping people" (in the example you used) into their profile, they were not created as groups. This also happens with other stuff that people insert into their profile. For example, if you input Dillard's as the place you work, facebook creates a Dillard's link automatically so that others can "like" it. That's what happened with the one you mentioned. Over 65,000 people inserted "helping people" into their profile (either in their "activities" section "philosophy" section or "interest" section) and facebook created that page/link. These are not abandoned pages. Even if you were to claim it you would have to go through a verification process.

The stargate SG1 page you referenced is a "Community Page". Community pages are not owned by anyone.

This is a quote directly from facebook:
"Community pages — the pages that link from fields you fill out in your profile — are for general topics and all kinds of unofficial but interesting things. You "like" these pages to connect with them, but they aren't run by a single author, and they don't generate News Feed stories."

What's that verification process like?

the interesting thing is that these pages have no effective owner, no "living" content -- either nothing or stuff scraped from Wikipedia -- and they effectively replace "real" pages that might exist for the same subject matter.

IOW, they're creating a network of fairly worthless pages that won't ever contain anything except some Wikipedia text (maybe) and related links (maybe).

These pages are created once you update your profile with companies where you’re working. I think you can claim the page as an official owner or a representative. This will be verified however to protect the business from being controlled by other people.