Judith Griggs probably looks something like this.

Judith Griggs, managing editor of Cooks Source magazine, thought it would be totally awesome to spare herself some actual work and earn her money by stealing works from websites. So she copied an entire article from Monica Gaudio’s Gode Cookery site and posted it in the Cooks Source magazine – without the author’s knowledge or permission. It is worth noting that Cooks Source is an ad-driven, newsstand-distributed, for-profit magazine.

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Monica recently found out about it and emailed the magazine asking them what happened and how they got the article. After exchanging a couple of emails, the magazine’s editor asked her what she wanted.

“I responded that I wanted an apology on Facebook, a printed apology in the magazine and $130 donation (which turns out to be about $0.10 per word of the original article) to be given to the Columbia School of Journalism”

Fair enough, right? Wrong, apparently. This is what the reply to her request was:

“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!”

So not only has Monica’s request been ignored, but the editor asked HER to pay the magazine for the editing, while also saying she should be happy she was given credit at all. How f*cked up is that? And since when is the internet public domain and free to use for personal profit?

Judith Griggs, you’re an asshat. I hope you get sued, fired and step in dog poop on your way to work. Now someone hand me my pitchfork and a torch and let’s join the unruly mob on this page (internet barrage underway)!



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