Cooks Source Mess

This morning Judith Griggs, the editor of Cooks Source Magazine released an official statement on what’s left of her website. In it she claims that her website and FB page have been “hacked” and that she and her advertisers are being harassed. Closer inspection shows that she pulled the content from the web and removed the contact info from the FB page. She may have even removed herself as admin, not realizing that FB pages don’t function that intuitively. She’s in the midst of a PR beatdown and I’m pretty sure she’s going to find it hard to work as an editor in the future.

This all blew up last week after a writer found her work had been edited and added to the site without a hint of “hey do you mind…?” When the author complained, the editor wrote back with “my bad” and this lovely nugget which has since turned into a meme:

“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.”

Having gone through this on a smaller scale personally, I feel for Monica.

I also feel a little of Griggs’ pain — she is under attack — but in the face of an internet mob that includes heavyweights like Scalzi, Gaiman and Wheaton, she might have been better off just closing shop and laying low for a few months. While her initial response was very, very stupid, her follow up has not been much better. In the past few days, she has no doubt ascended a steep learning curve about copyright and intellectual property and how important it is to protect one’s work. Now she is trying to twist laws to her own advantage. I wish her luck. Today’s statement still does nothing to make me think she is really sorry, just “sorry she got caught.”

I was surprised to find myself rethinking my own response to this story after reading, of all things, a Globe and Mail piece wherein the author, Ivor Tossel notes:

First, let’s not overlook the colossal irony of a young online crowd getting outraged about copyright infringement. It’s all very well to castigate Judith Griggs for being under the mistaken impression that just because something is online it can be taken and repurposed – but that’s exactly the assumption that underpins the way most people treat media on the Internet today.

Hmm. Fair point, but are they really the same thing? I think not. I think when an artist mashes up AC/DC with Ray Parker Jr., it creates something new. I do not think a magazine, a collection of other people’s articles, is in the same league. Even most little zines, the most punk/anarchist/underground form of publishing, wouldn’t pull this. (They might, however, publish a recipe, annotated with ideas about food security, health concerns, or substitution suggestions.)

I still think Judith Griggs was wrong but I think everyone needs to simmer down a little. On both sides.

More Related Reading:

• here’s a list of other confirmed material Cooks Source has lifted and a much bigger list (in a Google DOCs Spreadsheet), most of which have not yet been confirmed by their authors.
• Griggs’ opinionated non-pology as a song, “But Honestly Monica“
• The mess that is the Cookssource Facebook page (it hasn’t been hacked; settings to allow anyone to post on the wall)