The self-aggrandizing editor of small-town food magazine Cooks Source has replaced the full page apology on the magazine’s website with a passive-aggressive dig at writer Monica Gaudio and a suggestion that Gaudio is at fault for the magazine’s likely eventual collapse.

A few weeks back, Gaudio put editor Judith Griggs on Livejournal blast for failing to pay for a written piece of hers that Griggs sourced off the web, laughing off a suggestion she compensate Gaudio for the work and then suggesting Gaudio should have paid her for the editing work Griggs maintains she did to the piece. (Reading the lengthy missives penned by Griggs leads one to wonder whether she’s capable of even basic editing, though, given a distracting lack of proper punctuation and rampant other errors.) The internet, pretty much as a whole, reared up and breathed fire at the not very remorseful editor after the tale made the rounds.

Griggs, not exactly well-versed in sincerity, attempts again to appear apologetic for her transgression while publicly licking her wounds and blaming Gaudio for siccing the internet on Cooks Source:

Honestly, some of you have been pretty mean. I have been busy for the last week, apologising to these business owners and helping them to get things right again. If my apology to Monica seemed shallow it was because I was angry about the harm she has inflicted on others on behalf of her own agenda.

So let me say this now: Monica I am so sorry for any harm I caused you. I never ment [sic] to hurt anyone, and I think I did a nice job for you, but the fact remains that I took this without asking you and that was so very wrong. Please find it in you heart to forgive me. I sent the check  to the University and also, because so many people really need help, serious help, I am sending one to Food bank of Western Massachusetts (sorry, I got the name wrong the first time, even tho [sic] we did write an article on them).

Griggs then pretty much deflects responsibility for the debacle, as well as demonstrating that she still doesn’t understand why stealing the work of web writers for profit might make them angry. She contends that exhaustion lead to the lifting of the piece, something she wouldn’t have done if she thought she might get caught wasn’t working so damn hard all the time:

But one night when working yet another 12 hour day late into the night, I was short one article… Instead of picking up one of the multitude of books sent to me and typing it, I got lazy and went to the www and “found” something. Bleary-eyed I didnt notice it was copy written and reordered some of it. I did keep the author’s name on it rather than outright “stealing” it, and it was my intention to contact the author, but I simply forgot, between proofreading, deliveries, exhaustion.

Feeling any sympathy yet, meanies? You can read Gaudio’s response here.

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‘Cooks Source’ editor says internet meanies killed the magazine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Much maligned regional food mag Cooks Source has finally apologized to the blogger whose article “A Tale of Two Tarts” was ripped off for their print edition.

The furor began when writer Monica Gaudio posted an email exchange she had with Cooks Source editor Judith Griggs after the theft was brought to Gaudio’s attention. Griggs brushed off the writer’s request for token compensation and suggested the author pay the magazine for edits made to the piece. This did not go over well with the internet, who proceeded to flood the magazine’s Facebook page en masse, deluged the publication’s advertisers, and made endless jokes about the ill visited upon the world by Griggs.

Below is the statement posted on the website of Cooks Source- interestingly, every other bit of content from the site has disappeared. Is that to draw attention to their contrition, or is it because they can’t verify the sources of the images and text are legitimate? Does the magazine sound truly sorry, or is there more of a focus on how the scandal harmed them than how their actions were wrong in the first place?

We have cancelled our Facebook page on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 6:00PM. It has since been since been hacked by unknown parties and now someone else unknown to us has control of it. Their inclusion of Cooks Source issues and photos is used without our knowledge or consent. Please know that none of the statements made by either Cooks Source or Judith Griggs were made by either our staff or her.

We do not, and never have had a Twitter page, so what is attributed as our presence or our statements have nothing to do with Cooks Source or Judith Griggs.

We also cancelled our website on the above date, as our advertisers were listed therein, and with the harassment that has taken place on Facebook, we felt was unsafe for them.

Cooks Source will not be on Facebook again at any time in the future: hacking is too prevalent and apparently too easily performed by disreputable people. The email and Facebook abuse of our advertisers is the prime example: it is hurtful to people who are innocent of this issue, and can ill-afford the abuse — either emotionally or financially. Small business owners are being bombarded with hate mail, and distasteful messages because someone downloaded their contact information on these bogus sites. These small business owners work very hard to keep their businesses going in a bad economy. We respectfully request this harassment be stopped immediately. If you or anyone knows of this abuse, you should go to the bogus Cooks Source (or other bogus pages) Facebook page, look to the left side of the page and press “Report Abuse,” or else go to How to Report Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement, http://www.facebook.com/legal/copyright.php The Facebook Corporate phone number are 650-543-4800, 650-853-1300 and 650-543-4811which hopefully will assist interested parties who feels these snipers who are perpetuating hate have gotten out of hand and want to report it. Interestingly, this phone number and any other contact info is not listed on the Facebook site, and has taken four people a number of days to track down.

Last month an article, “American as Apple Pie — Isn’t,” was placed in error in Cooks Source, without the approval of the writer, Monica Gaudio. We sincerely wish to apologize to her for this error, it was an oversight of a small, overworked staff. We have made a donation at her request, to her chosen institution, the Columbia School of Journalism. In addition, a donation to the Western New England Food Bank, is being made in her name. It should be noted that Monica was given a clear credit for using her article within the publication, and has been paid in the way that she has requested to be paid.

This issue has made certain changes here at Cooks Source. Starting with this month, we will now list all sources. Also we now request that all the articles and informational pieces will have been made with written consent of the writers, the book publishers and/or their agents or distributors, chefs and business owners. All submission authors and chefs and cooks will have emailed, and/or signed a release form for this material to Cooks Source and as such will have approved its final inclusion. Email submissions are considered consent, with a verbal/written follow-up. Recipes created in the Cooks Source Kitchen are owned by Cooks Source and as such approval is given for chefs and cooks in our area to use them. Artwork used is created by our staff, or is royalty-free or purchased “clip-art.”

However: Cooks Source can not vouch for all the writers we have used in the past, and in the future can only check to a certain extent. Therefore, we will no longer accept unrequested articles, nor will we work with writers or illustrators unless they can prove they are reputable people, provide their sources, and who, in our estimation, we feel our readers and advertisers can trust and rely on for accuracy and originality. All sources will be listed with the articles, along with the permission, where necessary.

To say this has hurt our business is an understatement. But worse, it is harming the very people we are here to assist. Cooks Source’s is a small, free, local food newspaper-type magazine (called ‘magazine’ because it doesn’t generally include what is known as ‘news,’) whose mission statement is to assist small businesses and farms in our area and help readers learn about sustainable food issues. We promote small businesses and farms in our area, offer recipes because our readers request them, and because we are offered cookbooks and excerpts from distributors, publicists, agents and authors, non-profits, ag organizations, chefs and home cooks so as to help them promote their works. Cooks Source is so named because it reports on food sources: the farms, the bakers, the chefs and the foodie producers and purveyors– to the home and professional cooks and chefs in our area.

The misuse of Facebook discussed above also applies to Ms. Gaudio: she did what she felt was the right thing, and doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment, either. Regardless of what has been said, we liked her article very much.

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Cooks Source finally issues half-hearted apology to blogger they ripped off is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you were awake on the internet yesterday, there’s no way you missed the compelling narrative of Monica Gaudio’s stolen “Tale of Two Tarts.”

Gaudio, a self professed “medieval food nerd,” posted the story of how a for-profit, ad-supported magazine Cooks Source stole an article she’d written about the history of apple pie for their print edition. To briefly recap, when Gaudio contacted the editor to express her dismay, a chain of events that set the internet justice machine into motion was set off that was pretty awesome to witness. The editor in question has not been seen since the vengeance of Fark, Reddit, Boing Boing and even some mainstream media readers was unleashed on their Facebook page. (MSNBC was the lone voice sympathetic to reviled editor Judith Griggs during the saga.)

While reaction was swift, it was also comprehensive. One advertiser for the small publication reports having been contacted over 100 times by angry internet citizens in the five hours from when the story first went viral. (The company immediately and publicly withdrew support from the magazine.) Web sleuths quickly deduced that Griggs has been sticky fingered for a long time, and that content has been stolen for the magazine from Food Network, Weight Watchers and NPR for starters. (Lifted images were found in print copies of Cooks Source as well, and the link above lists five definitive instances of items being reproduced in the magazine without permission.)

It seems Griggs really doesn’t understand the internet, because despite provoking its ire rapidly and thoroughly with a condescending attitude towarrds web content, she has seen fit to leave the following message up on her magazine’s Facebook page for over 12 hours at this point:

Well, here I am with egg on my face! I did apologise to Monica via email, but aparently it wasnt enough for her. To all of you, thank you for your interest in Cooks Source and Again, to Monica, I am sorry — my bad!

You did find a way to get your “pound of flesh…” we used to have 110 “friends,” we now have 1,870… wow!

Griggs has not spoken on her own behalf since her comment on Facebook, but you can read a fairly comprehensive timeline of events over here. Can anyone recover their career after a scandal that is so high profile? Does Griggs deserve any degree of a pass for her crippling ignorance?

Aftermath: Cooks Source debacle emerges as cautionary tale about provoking the internet is a post from: The Inquisitr

There are full-time bloggers, and there are people who just write for the sheer love of sharing their knowledge, perspective or creativity on the internet.

One of the pitfalls of publishing your work on the web (paid or unpaid) is that the risk of having it stolen, misappropriated or otherwise reproduced to someone else’s benefit is rather high, and it doesn’t take too long to experience the joy of having your hard work lifted by some unscrupulous party for their own gain. A woman named Monica wrote a piece for a website about apple pies back in 2005- the kind of post you or I probably refer to a number of times in any given day.

Monica’s apple pie post was reprinted in its entirety by a cooking magazine, an instance that in and of itself is pretty galling, Monica, who is a better woman than I, found out about the article-lifting and requested very simple recompense. She asked for a print apology, a Facebook apology, and a small donation ($130) to the Columbia School of Journalism. The editor of Cooks Source replied graciously. Just kidding! She told Monica that she should be grateful the piece ran at all, and that Monica really should be paying Cooks Source for the editing work that had gone into her “Tale of Two Tarts.”

Monica posted a portion of the email sent by the editor of Cooks Source on her website- an email, it should be pointed out, that in and of itself does not seem to be very well edited. Below, the excerpt- can you believe the chutzpah?

“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!”

You can tell Cooks Source how you feel about bloggers being ripped off by their editor on their Facebook page.

Update: A Facebook page that logs suspected content theft committed by Cooks Source.

[Monica's LJ via Consumerist]

Print editor tells web writer her work is “public domain,” suggests victim should pay for editing of stolen piece is a post from: The Inquisitr

You may know him as Cyxymu, and apparently some of his views are a smidgen unpopular.

Facebook outages were not, as I speculated yesterday, the effects of Twitter overflow. In addition to Twitter and Facebook, LiveJournal, Blogger and YouTube were also drawn in to the effort to silence Cyxymu. Facebook’s chief security officer Max Kelly explained the motivation behind the attack to CNET:

“It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard,” Kelly said. “We’re actively investigating the source of the attacks and we hope to be able to find out the individuals involved in the back end and to take action against them if we can.”

Kelly wouldn’t voice any suspicions on who was responsible for the attacks, but he did say this:

“You have to ask who would benefit the most from doing this and think about what those people are doing and the disregard for the rest of the users and the Internet.”

The New York Times wasn’t afraid to speculate.

Most computer security analysts did not cite a specific source of the attack on Twitter.

But Bill Woodcock, research director of the Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit technical organization that tracks Internet traffic, said the attack was an extension of the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

It was not clear who initiated the attack, Mr. Woodcock said, but it was likely that “one side put up propaganda, the other side figured this out and is attacking them.” He said he found evidence that the attacks had originated from the Abkhazia region, a territory on the Black Sea disputed between Russia and Georgia.

Everything’s back to normal at the affected sites, but with a Gawker/Consumerist attack also originating out of Eastern Europe earlier this week, let’s hope it doesn’t become the new hotness.

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Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal- downed yesterday to silence one dude? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Zemanta is a Slovenian blogging tool that automatically suggests contextual photos and links for any post.

Webware describes Zemanta as “a brilliant product for lazy or otherwise time-focused bloggers” and it’s a fair description. The tool is offered either as a plugin for hosted blogs (WordPress and MovableType), as a browser extension (IE and Firefox) or with hosted platforms including WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and LiveJournal.

Image by Roebot via Flickr.

The video above walks through what it looks like on a Blogger blog, on a WordPress hosted blog I’m currently seeing a Zemanta box directly below the publish options on the right hand side. The plugin updates every 300 characters automatically, offering a gallery of context and legal pictures I can use on the this post. Below is a list of contextual articles I can place in the post at any time. Below the WordPress post box is a box labeled “links” with suggestions for links that can be inserted into the post base on words in it, for example with this post it’s showing Firefox, LiveJournal, WordPress, Zemanta and others. The tag box also gets contextual suggestions as well.

I’ve only just installed it, and have really got to give it a more serious workout, but my first thoughts: this is a really useful tool and I can see myself using it and even recommending it to others. Not having to dig around for pics (well at least less often), less stuffing around with link insertion, tag reminders, even related articles. My only two negatives: what are they getting out of this (where’s the catch) and secondly, it insists on inserting a Zemanta button at the bottom of every post every time you hit a button, so if you’re half way through you’ve then got to deal with code stuck directly after your last word. It’s easy to delete it prior to posting and ultimately it’s only a small annoyance.

Example of a contextual link below, the Zemanta button that the tool auto inserted, and the laptop picture above from their gallery suggestions.

One Word For Zemanta: Useful is a post from: The Inquisitr