For the past 24 hours or so, there has been a situation quite similar to United Breaks Guitars that has been growing throughout the internet. Apparently Cooks Source Magazine stole an article from someone's blog. When the original writer asked for an apology, all she got was an offensive email dismissing her.
For the full story, see: http://illadore.livejournal.com/30674.html
Now this story has gone viral, and people are mad. You should check out the Cooks Source Magazine Facebook page, which is now full of negative comments attacking the company for its actions: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Cooks-Source-Magazine/122095074516624
What is so interesting about this case is that we can watch it unfold in real time. What do you think will happen next?
Supposedly cookbook authors have been publishing "found" recipes that they did not actually create for years. There is no copy write protection for recipes so there have been no consequences for this form of plagiarism. I wonder if Cooks Source considered the blog writer's recipe and comments under that same umbrella of content that has no copy write.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how they are responding to the negative comments on their facebook page! They are acting sarcastic and insincere, which I think is really going to hurt their brand image. I think the company could have easily avoided this incident from going viral if they had swallowed their pride, thought rationally about the effects of their actions (seems like some companies really have a tough time with these two actions), and behaved in a manner that showed they sympathized with the author whose work they used. It could have been over before it even started...
ReplyDeleteUpdate: Cooks Source now claims their facebook account has been hacked and that the status/responses are not coming from anyone associated with the company. I wonder if this is true or just a poor attempt of damage control on behalf of the company.
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