When Cooks Source editor Judith Griggs wanted to find some filler for her small-time cooking magazine, she did what a lot of other writers have done before:  she went to the Internet.  She didn’t go to the online world for ideas, she just went trolling for articles to steal.  When she read Monica Gaudio’s article, “A Tale of Two Tarts,” she copied it word for word, made a few slight changes, and published it, all without contacting the author.  When Griggs declared in an email to the real author that the online world is all public domain, that’s when the internet writing community went completely insane.

As Griggs brazenly said in her email:  “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.”

I consider myself a writer.  (You might not, but that’s a different story.)  I’ve done freelance work for magazines, and I’ve done paid work for websites such as this one and a myriad of others who’ve deigned to publish my scribblings for a pittance.  Allow me to make this very clear:  copyright is copyright, period.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog post, an article, an e-zine, or a music download, copyright protects it all and you cannot appropriate someone else’s work wholesale without their permission.  You definitely don’t make the situation worse by stealing the article, telling the real author they should be grateful, then continue on to tell them that the original piece kind of sucked before you stole it and edited it.  That’s just insult to injury!

Tags: Cooks Source, Sunderland, Massachusetts, Monica Gaudio, Judith Griggs, plagiarism, stolen article, online article stolen for print magazine, public domain, online copyright, Cooks Source magazine steals online article, A Tale Of Two Tarts, apple pie article stolen by magazine

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