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Public domain... I don't think those words mean what you think they mean.
I came across this on twitter, thanks to John Scalzi.

Back in 2005, Monica Gaudio wrote an Ice Dragon (? I don't know what this is.) entry called A Tale of Two Tarts that appeared on the Godecookery website. It is copyrighted and on a web-domain that Monica herself owns.

Last week, a friend contacted her, asking her how she had gotten published! Monica's answer "I... didn't?"

Turns out, she had. The magazine Cooks Source (Facebook here, they are also a paper publication.) had lifted her article from the Godecookery site and put it in their magazine.

She contacts the magazine via phone and then through the "Contact Us" link on the website, and exchanges emails with them. Finally, they ask her "what she wants." She replies that she wants an apology on Facebook, a printed apology in the magazine, and $130 donated to the Columbia School of Journalism.

What she got in response was this (quoted from her post):

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!

Monica is rightfully mad.

nihilistic_kid on LJ has a post about it here as well. And Scalzi posted on his blog as well.

And John Scalzi linked to his recipe for Schadenfreude Pie on the Cooks Resource Facebook wall here, with a plea that they "don't steal it." Bwah!

EDIT: The Smart Bitches have picked it up.

Also, people are looking. And unshockingly, this isn't the first time this has happened. This Pancetta and Green Onion Tart? Is copyright to Giada deLaurentiis, and appears on the Food Network website under her name.

EDIT of "Oh Fuck, The Internet is Here" - The cookssource.com website is down. Dear Author and Gawker have both picked it up.

EDIT the Heidipology: This is the last one from me, anything else will have to go into the comments, cause I'm going out and having me a drink from a non-plagiarized source. Judith Griggs has "apologised" via the wall of the Facebook account. Facebook is linked up above. Marvel, will you? (Screencap here in case she takes it down.)

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vorpal_blade
2010-11-06 03:31 am UTC (link)

When you think about it, the really stupid move she made was to keep Monica's name on the article. Since it had been "corrected" from the original medieval English, this might never have been detected if she hadn't associated the original author with the work she stole from her. Just another way doesn't understand the internet--if Monica's friend hadn't found the article and congratulated Monica (I'm sure she had no idea what she would set in motion1), Monica herself might have found it eventually by Googling herself, which sounds like an exercise in vanity, but people do it when they want to keep an eye on their public image.

OTOH, I'm betting Judith Griggs won't be Googling herself anytime soon... She really wouldn't like what she's likely to find.

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ardath_rekha
2010-11-09 04:37 pm UTC (link)

Actually, she would probably still have gotten caught, because the friend of Monica's, who recognized the article and contacted her, was involved in its original publication on Gode Cookery. So if her name had actually been left off, things might have been even more explosive from the start, because then it would have been a clear-cut case of plagiarism as well as copyright infringement.

I'll be interested to see what happens with the article that was taken from WebMD, given that in that case, Griggs did change the name of the author. Not a good move but one she more or less admitted to making in her letter to Monica, when she said that Monica ought to be grateful it hadn't been done to her. WebMD may not have lawyers quite as powerful as, say, the Mouse, but I'm betting they can make her hurt.

In my university's Com 101 program, students are urged to Google themselves on a regular basis just to find out what prospective employers are likely to see if they do it. So hopefully people won't think of it as an exercise in vanity for much longer, and more as an exercise in self-preservation. Ms. Griggs can sure serve as an object lesson about what happens when you don't value your reputation enough to stay honest.

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