Cooks Source infringement controversy

The ''Cooks Source'' infringement controversy occurred in November 2010, when ''Cooks Source'', a free, advertising-supported publication distributed in the New England region of the United States, became the center of a copyright infringement dispute after the magazine reprinted an online article without permission of the author. The controversy was fueled by social media and crowdsourced investigations finding additional alleged infringement and plagiarism. The incident became an international topic of news and analysis, which expanded to become an internet meme. On the issue of copyright, the incident illustrates that "masses of Internet users are very good at finding examples of copyright infringement, which counterbalances how easy the Internet has made plagiarism in the first place." At the same time, the response by the ''Cooks Source'' editor "may well become a digital textbook example of how not to respond to grievances in the internet age."Smith, Matt (November 5, 2010)
Cooks Source magazine creates internet firestorm with story on apple pie.
''City Pages'' The incident was named Journalistic Error of the Year for 2010 by Craig Silverman on his website Regret the Error. The fallout from the controversy drove ''Cooks Source'' out of business within two weeks of it breaking in full.

Background

As reported by Dan Crowley of the local '' Daily Hampshire Gazette'', ''Cooks Source'' was founded in 1997 by Judith D. Griggs, a former town plannerHamel, Chris (December 12, 2007)
Warren to seek town planner.
'' The Republican''Ellery, J.P. (December 14, 2007)
Selectman denies bullying in heavy-duty discussion.
''Telegram & Gazette'' and conservation agent,Devlin, Emily (August 8, 2009)
Angry words exchanged at meeting.
'' Sentinel & Enterprise''Devlin, Emily (August 19, 2009)
Agent fired over heated remarks.
'' Sentinel & Enterprise'' who had previously been art director and editor of several small magazines. The magazine stated its goal was "to help educate readers about sustainable sources of foods and products, farms, cooking, restaurants and businesses," and to provide a marketing tool for small businesses and farms which create and sell food for local businesses and consumers. At the time of the incident, ''Cooks Source'' was published by Cooks Source Publications in the second-floor office of a rented duplex in Sunderland, Massachusetts, almost north of Springfield. Griggs, who was 59 years old at the time of the incident, hand-delivered the monthly publication with her adult daughter along a 2,000-mile distribution route to locations in western New England, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and some of New Hampshire. The magazine's circulation varied, but it was under 10,000 a month.

Griggs rose to internet notoriety on November 4, 2010, after it became known that an article published on page 10 in the October 2010 ''Cooks Source'' issue infringed on the copyright of Monica Gaudio, the piece's author.Pegoraro, Rob (November 4, 2010)
''Cooks Source'' magazine masters new recipe: How to annoy the Internet.
''The Washington Post'' In 2005, Gaudio had published the copyrighted piece under the title "A Tale of Two Tarts" on a website devoted to medieval cookery.Gaudio, Monica (2005)
A Tale of Two Tarts.
via ''Gode Cookery'', accessed November 14, 2010

Gaudio was credited in ''Cooks Source'' for the 1,300-word piece, which was retitled "As American As Apple Pie — Isn't!" and was revised from Gaudio's original in places. Griggs neither paid Gaudio nor notified her when the piece had run.Lynch, Rene (November 4, 2010)

''Los Angeles Times''DiceCast Episode 12: Interview with Monica Gaudio (by Polymancer Studios). November 15, 201

/ref> Gaudio notified Griggs of the infringement and asked for an apology and a small donation to the Columbia School of Journalism. (Gaudio chose the Columbia School of Journalism so ''Cooks Source'' could easily comply with her request; she has stated that she is neither a journalist herself nor is she affiliated with that institution.) The ensuing response by Griggs "has become the stuff of internet legend,"Silverman, Craig (November 12, 2010)
Newsmangled: Cooks Source's recipe for disaster.
''Toronto Star'' and said in part:

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!Gaudio, Monica (November 3, 2010)
Copyright Infringement and Me.
'' LiveJournal''Bercovici, Jeff (November 4, 2010)
Cooking Magazine Gets Poached Egg on the Face.
''Forbes''

Online response

Griggs' response, particularly her statement that all web content is considered public domain, was publicized by a number of online celebrities, including Nick Mamatas, Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi, Neil Gaiman, and Warren Ellis.Staff report (November 5, 2010)
Blogger victim of infringement wins support.
CBC News The tone of Griggs' response and her erroneous claims led to what Gaudio described as "nerd rage".Castillo, Michelle (November 5, 2010)
Exclusive: ''Cooks Source'' Writer Marvels at the 'Nerd Rage,' Keeps Waiting For That Apology.
''Time'' The magazine's Facebook page received a slew of mocking messages.Flaherty, Bob (November 5, 2010)
''Cooks Source'' has blogger boiling mad.
'' Daily Hampshire Gazette'' In less than 24 hours, a list of the magazine's advertisers was generated and the advertisers contacted, with secondary campaigns beginning to reward advertisers who had pulled their ads from the magazine.Jasper, Josh (November 4, 2010)
Copyright for Dummies.
''Publishers Weekly'' One blog campaigned for making "griggs" a verb meaning "to take something without permission then demand compensation from the victim".Wendell, Sarah (November 4, 2010)
Judith Griggs: The Google Is Our Friend, Not Hers.
''Smart Bitches, Trashy Books'' The hashtags #buthonestlymonica and #crookssource went viral on Twitter.

''Cooks Source''s web hosting company, Intuit, experienced an outage on November 4, prompting speculation that a denial-of-service attack aimed at ''Cooks Source'' may have been the reason.Mills, Elinor (November 4, 2010)
Attack cause Intuit Web-hosting service outage?
CNET Several parodic Twitter accounts and a bogus Facebook page titled ''Cooks Source Mag'' were created on November 5, containing additional inflammatory statements purportedly by the magazine staff.Tiku, Nitasha (November 5, 2010)
After Plagiarizing Blogger's Story, ''Cooks Source'' Magazine Pretends Its Facebook Page Was 'Hacked.'
''New York''Whitney, Lance (November 5, 2010)
Lifting of blogger's story triggers online furor.
CNET It also inspired editorials by Robert X. CringelyCringely, Robert X. (November 8, 2010)
Plagiarism 101: Cooks Source and the Internet response.
''InfoWorld'' and John Birmingham,Birmingham, John (November 8, 2010)
The cook and the thieves: a win for internet IP.
''Sydney Morning Herald'' '' Downfall'' parodies,Nemspy (November 6, 2010)
Cooks Source editor, Hitler, reacts to claims of copyright violation.
YouTubeNeutralityChecker (November 6, 2010)
Hitler's Reaction on Cooks Source's edition of "Mein Kampf."
ouTube a tribute song,Jeremy, Arlo (November 8, 2010)
But Honestly, Monica (A Song Cover).
YouTube and a satirical proposed apology composed entirely of unattributed famous quotations.Greenlee, Steve (November 8, 2010)
Unoriginal thoughts: An apology? We took the words right out of their mouths.
''The Boston Globe'' Cringely later named it fourth among the Top 10 Dumbest Tech Moves of 2010.Cringely, Robert X. (December 30, 2011)
Top 10 Dumbest Tech Moves of 2010.
'' PCWorld''

Gaudio said she never intended the online response to go as far as it had, but she expected mainstream media coverage once Gaiman re-tweeted it. She said she knew one or more ''Cooks Source'' advertisers had been contacted, but she did not intend for any small businesses or people to be harmed or harassed. She said she found many of the Facebook comments amusing.

Response by ''Cooks Source''

Gaudio did not receive a direct response from Griggs or ''Cooks Source Magazine'' in relation to the affair after Gaudio posted about their email communication.Gaudio, Monica (November 4, 2010)
Quick update!!
'' LiveJournal''

On November 9, the ''Cooks Source'' website was updated with an unsigned statement indicating ''Cooks Source'' had complied with Gaudio's requests for redress and were changing their business practices.Pace, Gina (November 10, 2010)
Cooks Source Apologizes for Plagiarizing Article.
CBS NewsStewart, Doug and French, Sarah (November 10, 2010)
Cooks Source Plagiarism Case
wit
accompanying article.
Fox CT (via YouTube) Gaudio was unable to confirm immediately if the requested donation had in fact been made.Whitney, Lance (November 11, 2010)
Magazine apologizes for lifting blogger's story.
CNET Linda Holmes, a writer at NPR, characterized the statement as "a very strange semi-apology", adding, "It actually sounds a lot like the e-mail Gaudio got in the first place: defiant, sure of its correctness, and, in the end, kind of baffling."Holmes, Linda (November 9, 2010)
'Cooks Source' Update: Magazine (Sort Of) Issues Weirdest Semi-Apology Ever.
NPR ''New York'' declared the publication's apparent retention of Griggs "a victory for passive-aggressive e-mail writers everywhere."Tiku, Natasha (November 9, 2010
''Cooks Source'' Is Sorry It Displeased You, Oh Wise and Powerful Internet.
''New York'' The ''Cooks Source'' statement was quickly parodiedSheresh, Beth (November 10, 2010)
''Cooks Source'' statement: slightly corrected.
''Kitchen Mage'' and mocked.Nolan, Hamilton (November 10, 2010)
Parsing the ''Cooks Source'' Apology.
''Gawker'' John Scalzi graded the apology a D+, adding, "This is the apology of someone who is sorry she got caught, not the apology of someone who feels she has done wrong."Scalzi, John (November 10, 2010)
Cooks Source Apology.
''Whatever'' Robert X. Cringely called the statement "one of the oddest things I've ever read."Cringely, Robert X. (November 13, 2010)

'' PC World''

In her first interview after the incident, Griggs said she had received hundreds of emails and disconnected her phone after getting over 100 calls. Though the November issue was scheduled for delivery, Griggs said, "I don't know if I'm going to continue ''Cooks Source''. At this point, it's looking doubtful." The article elaborated that ''Cooks Source'' commonly received cookbooks and recipes from publishers and that its content was routinely duplicated from those sources, sometimes with express permission.Crowley, Dan (November 12, 2010)
Cooks Source publisher admits mistake, describes struggles with copyright issue.
'' Daily Hampshire Gazette'' Shortly after the interview's publication, Gaudio was able to confirm Griggs' donation, and therefore considered the matter "all resolved, at least to my satisfaction."Gaudio, Monica (November 14, 2010)
What a long, strange ride this has been.
LiveJournal

On November 17, 2010, the ''Cooks Source'' homepage was updated again, with a personal statement from Griggs which claimed Gaudio's email was "antagonistic and just plain rude", that Gaudio had neglected to post "nice" things Griggs had said in her email alongside the rude things, and that Griggs had offered to compensate Gaudio for the article, but that Gaudio "never gave era chance" to address the issue. Griggs reiterated that she would likely close down ''Cooks Source'' due to the backlash. Gaudio responded by posting her side of her correspondence with Griggs;Gaudio, Monica (November 17, 2010)
I feel I should quote from Godfather III.
LiveJournal she explained that she was unable to post Griggs' portion of the email conversation due to Griggs holding copyright on her own words.Gaudio, Monica (November 16, 2010)
Okay -- I thought I was done.
LiveJournal The ''Cooks Source'' and ''Travel Source'' homepages were later taken offline completely, and Facebook deleted the related sites originally created by Griggs.

Analysis and additional infringement allegations

The incident prompted editorials from a range of journalists including Melissa Block of NPR's ''All Things Considered'', Zachary Hunchar of Technorati,Hunchar, Zachary (November 7, 2010)
Copyright? Copywrong!: Outrage In Zeroes and Ones.
'' Technorati'' and CNN's Eatocracy. Journalist Ivor Tossell opined that this may be the first major Facebook-based internet vigilantism where many participants used their real names instead of remaining anonymous. He noted that Griggs resembled a cartoonish "pantomime villain", and her passive-aggressive attitude, and not the infringement itself, caused the response.Tossell, Ivor (November 8, 2010)
Copyright scandal cooks up online frontier justice.
(wit
accompanying podcast
''The Globe and Mail'' TechRepublic offered tips to avoid having one's online work used without credit.Bowers, Toni (November 9, 2010).
Online content often a victim of plagiarism.
''TechRepublic'' One author compared the incident to the 2008 sourcing dispute that led to the demise of ''The Bulletin'', a small Texas alternative weekly.Suozzo, Andrea (November 18, 2010)
Clippings: Cooks Source gives copyright lesson.
''Addison County Independent'' Glenn Fleishman wrote that "regardless of the provenance of the email, it was scary to watch the net awake as one."Fleishman, Glen (November 10, 2010)
Internet shaming: Too many cooks.
''The Economist''

The NPR program '' On the Media'' discussed the episode as an example of how quickly and severely anger can spread on the Internet, noting that the episode had made the phrase "but honestly, Monica" into an internet meme and had spawned the verb "to Griggs", defined as "to use content on the Web without permission, then request payment from the original author for rewrites and editing."Gladstone, Brooke (November 12, 2010)
How to Anger the Internet
, '' On the Media'' from NPR Paul Bradshaw reviewed professional options for Griggs that might have mitigated the impact of the negative response.Bradshaw, Paul (November 5, 2010)
Cooks Source: What should Judith Griggs have done?
''Online Journalism Blog'' Joseph P. Kahn used the ''Cooks Source'' incident to illustrate how senders should have no expectation of privacy once something is electronically transmitted to a recipient, especially if it is potentially controversial or embarrassing.Kahn, Joseph P. November 15, 2010)
Once you hit send, privacy is gone.
''The Boston Globe''

After Gaudio posted Griggs' email, online investigators created a Google Spreadsheet and compiled almost 170 instances where ''Cooks Source'' appeared to have lifted copyrighted material, including text and images, from other sources, "including NPR, Hallmark and the website of Food Network personality Paula Deen."Crowley, Dan (November 10, 2010)
Sunderland food magazine posts apology over use of unauthorized material.
'' Daily Hampshire Gazette''Sullivan, S.P. (November 4, 2010)
Sunderland-based magazine ''Cooks Source'' accused of Internet plagiarism.
Masslive.com, accessed November 5, 2010. Blogger Edward Champion contacted the original authors or publishers of several pieces published in ''Cooks Source'' and confirmed that many of them had been used without permission. NPR sent the magazine a cease-and-desist letter. Block, Melissa. (November 8, 2010)
Cooks Source, Copyright And Public Domain.
''All Things Considered'', NPR

References

External links

{{Portal, Internet, United States

Original account of the incident on Monica Gaudio's Knitting Blog
via LiveJournal

Plagiarism controversies
2010 controversies
Internet memes
2010 in the United States