When Magazine Editors don't understand the meaning of the word plagarism

Nov 04, 2010 11:59

Cooks Sources magazine lifted an article from iladore and published it in their magazine and on their website.
-- I responded that I wanted an apology on Facebook, a printed apology in the magazine and $130 donation (which turns out to be about $0.10 per word of the original article) to be given to the Columbia School of Journalism.

What I got instead was this (I am just quoting a piece of it here:)

"Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was "my bad" indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things.
But honestly Monica, the web is considered "public domain" and you should be happy we just didn't "lift" your whole article and put someone else's name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me... ALWAYS for free!"

Basically the whole thing has exploded into an internet bomb. Cooks Source Facebook page is being blown up. At least one advertiser has pulled their advertising (and rightfully so). Several authors-including matociquala (Elizabeth Bear) and Neil Gaiman have tweeted about it. She has gotten an offer from a copywright lawyer in LA for a free consultation.

They apparently have also stolen articles from the following sources: The Food Network, NPR, Sunset Magazine, Paula Deen, Iladore and WebMD. They've also stolen a couple of photos from the internet. Check out page 2 of the comments for those sources. And if you check page 3 apparently they have stolen from Martha Stewart.

And picked up by the mainstream news media. Edited to add It's gone international.

Man-24 hours to a major internet media storm. This is not my father's news media, that is for sure.

Oh Cooks Source-I bet that apology and $130 donation is looking Really Really good right about now.

Edited again to add-They stole an article from Disney?? Holy Hannah...

Son of edit-the sf_drama post has more links to mainstream press articles, including the NY Times.

Also, Smart Bitches which is a totally cool blog, has asked it's readers to help Google Bomb Ms Griggs name.

As requested:

Judith Griggs

Why yes, I am evil. Deal with it
Previous post Next post
Up