Magazine Editor, Copyright Infringement trouble and the Internet...again. Oh my.

pmbpro

I did a search on this forum just in case it was already posted, but didn't find anything, so I'm just sharing this now.

I'd been following this story since a friend posted it on Facebook 2 days ago. It appears it started out with a food magazine editor's incredible response to an author when contacted by the author for publishing her article (about Medieval apple pies) without permission. She'd requested an apology on Facebook, and a $130 donation to a known journalism school.

One story here (of many by now):

http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=14952

Another here:
http://madhatter.ca/2010/11/05/corporate-copyright-scofflaws-0007-cooks-magazine-plagiarism-scandal/

Among other things, like saying she was an editor for 3 decades and yet claiming the internet was "public domain", this editor also had the nerve to tell the author she should be compensating HER for "editing" the original piece for her and it's now good for the author's "portfolio", as though doing her a favour?! :huh Wow. Such a response didn't help regarding the outrage, and I think it made things worse.

Here' where things really got bigger that this editor would have liked:

It's also been discovered that the copyright infringements had been going on for quite some time, with even the "big fish" (not just a college student)! Even articles from Martha Stewart, NPR, Disney(!), The Food Network, Oprah, and so many more magazines, books and websites/authors were taken and published without permission.

Not sure one needs a Facebook account to see these, but a discussion on their FB business page has really taken off on how many links were found and posted (the mag's articles, and the original source links).

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=196994196748&topic=23238#topic_top

Someone even created a Google spreadsheet for people to contribute what they found (original source links vs. offending pages):
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmTaIPHPnkSedGFhbHo1d1FIR2oxNWJLaDZLeXhEVEE&hl=en#gid=0

In the Photos section of their FB page, I saw for myself, a few articles they'd printed, cut and pasted in there, and some photos that were swiped too.

I'm just stunned at how far and wide the copying had gone and how she must have profited from it all this time. Sad all around.

Wil Davis

An interesting read. Many thanks for the "heads-up"; talk about shooting themselves in the foot, sounds like they took off the whole bloody leg!, well deserved, I say!

- Wil

RogersDA

Cooks Source states that they canceled their facebook account, and since the cancellation they further state that it has been hacked and "their" content being used illegally.

http://www.cookssource.com/index.html

entropysedge

looks like they are backpedalling as fast as they can in order to try not to get sued by the people they stole from. Hopefully those people got screen shots before all the content was taken down.

pmbpro

RogersDA wrote: »

Cooks Source states that they canceled their facebook account, and since the cancellation they further state that it has been hacked and "their" content being used illegally.

http://www.cookssource.com/index.html

entropysedge wrote: »

looks like they are backpedalling as fast as they can in order to try not to get sued by the people they stole from. Hopefully those people got screen shots before all the content was taken down.

What a rich "letter" that was to read. Yeah, all that backpedalling is giving me motion sickness! I love how they can't "vouch" for the writers or illustrators they used, or future ones. Nice blame game. In the end, they put out the "magazine" to the public. They couldn't check the source of these submitted articles first? Look how fast internet users found the original sources... type a phrase or two, and the original sources popped up, with photos! They couldn't do that? Error? Right. I suppose the "editor's" arrogant email response was written "in error" too.

As they noted, it's a "FREE" magazine, so no wonder it was free eh (i mean, why PAY for quality, original work or the original authors)?

People were warning each other to do screen shots as back-up for the Google spreadsheet, as some were being taken down. I was amazed at how fast many of the readers were at doing all of this! Some readers were also contacting advertisers with the info/links to alert them of the copyright infringement so they can decide whether to associate themselves with this mag anymore, so this claim that these advertisers were being "harassed" is a complete joke!

I'm still laughing at the Facebook "hack" claim. People "liked" the page, then posted their outraged comments (others wrote silly, insulting ones). They disabled their Wall to prevent original fan comments, but people were still able to respond to Cooks' own Wall comments.

I must say, those who helped expose the infringement, gathered info and provided some ideas on the subject to educate others were great, but I was definitely NOT a fan of the other silly, insulting, malicious comments that other people posted though, and making fake Twitter or FB profiles! THEY were NOT helping. Too much "bandwagon-jumping" and mob mentality there and, IMO, Cooks was trying to take advantage of THAT malicious silliness in their backpeddalling (i.e. using the Facebook "hacking" excuse).

waywardfool

pmbpro wrote: »

People were warning each other to do screen shots as back-up for the Google spreadsheet, as some were being taken down.

There's always the wayback machine at archive.org where their site from previous periods is likely archived.

I had another business copy my website, word-for-word, several years ago. They rebuked a cease-and-desist letter, saying I copied their site. The Wayback Machine archive was simple proof that mine was up first, by over a year.

It's a great resource if you are not familiar with it. www.archive.org

EDIT: Just checked, unfortunately, archive.org doesn't have that site saved.

pmbpro

waywardfool wrote: »

There's always the wayback machine at archive.org where their site from previous periods is likely archived.

I had another business copy my website, word-for-word, several years ago. They rebuked a cease-and-desist letter, saying I copied their site. The Wayback Machine archive was simple proof that mine was up first, by over a year.

It's a great resource if you are not familiar with it. www.archive.org

EDIT: Just checked, unfortunately, archive.org doesn't have that site saved.

Wow. I'm sorry that something similar happened to you too. Yeah, I've found some great stuff on the Wayback Machine over the years when sites I'd liked had gone belly-up.

Hmmm, as far as that Cooks' site not being saved... pity. It would have been a great educational tool.

pmbpro

RogersDA wrote: »

Cooks Source states that they canceled their facebook account, and since the cancellation they further state that it has been hacked and "their" content being used illegally.

http://www.cookssource.com/index.html

Oh, man. She'd posted a new entry replacing the previous one we saw. This blathering is even worse! I can hear the violins squeakin' from here! She makes it sounds as though her donation to the journalism school was done after a "shakedown" or something!
Gotta love the "....seemed ironic because there were all these people in this small town going into the holidays with no jobs...", yet she was getting writers for "free". I guess they didn't need to be paid (esp. from all those advertising dollars she was raking in for years), right?