I love the smell of fresh baked copyright infringement in the morning UPDATED.
on November 4th, 2010
This is all over the internet, which, according to the editor who pinched the piece, is all PUBLIC DOMAIN! HAHA! And editor Judith Griggs ought to know because she has 30 year’s experience in publishing, so she knows everything!
Author Monica Gaudio posted this charming article about the origin of the apple pie. Me like pie!
Cooks Source magazine likes pie, too. They like pie so much, they pinched Ms Guado’s piece in toto and printed it in their magazine! Word for word, which you can see here, because Ms Guado’s site is overwhelmed with traffic, and this Facebook scan of Cook Source isn’t.
Ms Gaudo politely requested compensation for her article, an apology, and payment of $130 to the Columbia School of Journalism. Which I think is an awfully mild response to copyright infringement. But then, I’m a barracuda.
Judith Griggs, editor for Cooks Source responded with this email of awesome awful.
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!
I’m speechless.
Oh, who am I kidding, you know I’m not.
Whatever the hell they taught this goober at Housitonic Home (whatever the hell that is) had nothing to do with copyright, because the internet is not public domain, and anything posted on the internet does not constitute an abandonment of rights.
I’m only writing this for the 13 people who read this blog who do not know that already.
What is it about people who pinch your stuff, and then declare to your face you ought to be grateful that other people even want your stuff? Is that like the creepy guy who pinches your butt and then goes on to tell you he only did it because he was trying to make you feel better about yourself?
UPDATE: Edward Champion did some detective work, and it looks like an awful lot of Cooks Source material is poached.
For every reproduction that I found, I made efforts to contact the original copyright holder. And the above examples demonstrate unequivocally that nearly the entirety of Cooks Source‘s material has been taken from other sources and that, in at least four instances, Cooks Source did not obtain the necessary permission to reproduce the material. The onus is now on Cooks Source to produce the appropriate paperwork to demonstrate that it secured the release. But since Judith Griggs is uninterested in returning telephone calls, since she has demonstrated a lack of concern for copyright, and not a single writer, publisher, or organization has come forward with proof positive that Griggs has played by the rules, one can conclude from the presented evidence that Cooks Source is a magazine that profits on theft.
In the meantime, you can trot over to the Cooks Source Facebook page and amuse yourself with some epic mockity mock. (UPDATE: I know this isn’t a problem with my noble readers, but for goodness’s sake, the threat level there is off the scale. The woman doesn’t have to die to satisfy internet ire, and I wonder where the righteousness is when it comes to, say, defending creators against online comic book pirates. Like when this unrighteous dude threatened to come get my money for his taking of my entire catalogue of work. Just sayin’.)
Congratulations, Cooks Source. You made my list of Very Bad Publishers!
Now, fire the editor, for crying out loud.
And by the way, Judith Griggs now owes everyone who handed her her ass in a hat for teaching her valuable lessons about copyright, and professionalism. My services cost $130, which you can make payable to The Hero Initiative. Thanks.
I got seven emails about this already, and thanks to Arlene, Sarah Beach, Emma, and more.
Screen shot from Ms Grigg’s FB page:
The things you do for your job, indeed!
Weebl and Bob cartoons. Go see them HERE. ME LIKE PIE!
it appears Cooks Source is a one person operation? So she would either have to fire herself or, as appears to be the case, the internet is firing her instead.
Why is it it’s always the smallest presses who have the biggest wank?
Whoa… O_O
You know, recently at the Anime & Manga magazine I write for, they held a meeting to scold several writers for doing that, taking word by word entire articles, sites reviews and such when they were asked to write an article. The magazine editors and the owner were very angry, and said that the next time they caught anyone stealing from the nets, that was it for them as writers in their company.
Ow.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/compost/2010/11/the_cooks_source_editor_respon.html
Ow ow.
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2010/11/04/cooks-source-the-magazine-that-got-a-facebook-backlash-for-copying-material-without-permission/
Not sure that “apology” is actually from “Judith”.
Ow ow ow.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2010/11/cooks-source-magazine-vs-the-web.html
Mommy, it hurts.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/sunderland-based_magazine_cook.html
@ Gaby: Thank you, that gives me hope for the future of mankind.
What response was she expecting from that email?
“Oh thank you ever so much Judith! I was totally confused about the internet and intellectual property and how it all works! Thank you ever so much for your kindness in the matter! Where shall I send my check for your editing services? And would you like me to FedEx my backbone to you…. I don’t have much use for it after all…”
When I wrote one Very Bad Publisher a polite and concise note about their failure to honor the terms of our contract, I got this in return:
“You shouldn’t try to out-officious someone like me. I’ve had lots more practice.”
The little creators should never question the great and powerful Oz.
OOOWWWWWW!!!!
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/judith-griggs-the-google-is-our-friend-not-hers/
I find it funny that the stuff Griggs thought needed “editing” was the medieval spellings in the medieval recipes cited in the original article.
And I think I ought to do some Googling to see if my own writing isn’t being ripped off somewhere – it hadn’t occured to me to make that a pracitce.
One of the blogs (and I lost the link,) had more excerpts of letters from Griggs. Something about how she thought the writer she ripped off was being rude.
I scoff.
Angie sent me a link to her blog post which has more sources:
http://angiesdesk.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-plagiarism-because-internet-is-all.html
Ah… Always fun to watch…
Here… stick a meat thermometer in it… it’s done.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/11/05/131091599/the-day-the-internet-threw-a-righteous-hissyfit-about-copyright-and-pie
(Includes an example Cooks Source swiped from NPR.)
It’s disappointing that this got triggered because Griggs thought the original author was being rude to protest the reproduction without premission, and suggested that the reprint fee be paid to a journalism school.
It’s sad that the first reaction to a mild challenge that indicated she had proceeded incorrectly was to attack the author.
there is no more delicious wank than food wank. Seriously. It comes with its own recipes and everything. I’m copying it all down, and you can’t stop me! Mwahahahahaha.
btw if you go to Cooks Source’s website you see only the front page. No about, no contact info, no nothing. It’s like a placeholder. Everything else has been ripped down. There is no coming back from this.
Arlnee — yeah, kind of hard to replace a whole website that was filled with pilfered work. Takes a long time to … ha! Do it yourself! (And well I know it, since my website IS all my own work. Well, except for the photos used on the Scribbler’s Guide to Myth blog – but there I try to cite who owns the pix, and it is for commentary purposes anyway. And as of this date, I don’t have advertisers anyway.
She either thought no one would notice the infringement or banked on the writer not being well-versed in copyright protection.
Unfortunately, in cases like these, there can be little recourse and compensation to the ACTUAL writers since this is a small operation, they can claim a lack of funds. Plus, unlike the pirate who got busted recently for ripping off various comics publishers, there probably won’t be much action from law enforcement.
@ Jeremy A: I’m with you. I saw a lot of people comment that Griggs was merely ignorant of copyright law, but I do NOT believe that for one second. Griggs knew exactly what she was doing. There is no way someone who spent that much time pilfering stuff did not understand what she was doing. She even had a copyright notice on her website with a note admonishing anyone from using the material elsewhere.
And I agree that she hoped the young writer would be intimidated and ignorant.
@Colleen: The snappy comeback to “I’ve had lots more practice.”: “Then you must be a very slow learner.”