Yet, if Theodore’s philosophy is that unsourced compilation is the same thing as collaboration, it hasn’t stopped him from displaying the standard legal—copyright and trademark—protections for Reader’s content as well. You will be prosecuted for plagiarizing the plagiarizer, apparently.
“It’d be nice if there were some recourse,” says Vincent Zandri, a freelance journalist and author of fiction whose feature, “One Man’s Victory Against All Odds” by RT in May 2009— was republished in Reader’s November/December/January 2010-11 issue. “If one of your stories is being reprinted and you’re not paid for it, that’s plagiarism and money out of your pocket—especially for me; I’m a freelancer.”
Zandri says his work has been pirated numerous times, and he was not terribly surprised to learn he had been plagiarized and republished in a Southern California direct mailer:
As great as the digital world has been as a journalist and fiction writer—especially with lucrative ebook sales—it has been just as troubling because people are pirating me left and right…. But as a journalist, I’m on to the next story and I’m working. I just don’t have the time or the resources. I don’t know what I could do—I’m powerless and as long as it is out there digitally, it can be hacked.
Zandri promotes a lot of his work on his website, a strategy he says he is beginning to question as a result of his continuing battle against piracy and plagiarism.
And so, what to make of this all? Reader Magazine is just a coupon magazine, mailed to 150,000 homes in Southern California—and promoted, with mixed success (thirteen Twitter followers, but 8,516 likes on Facebook) on the Internet. It’s design and layout are crummy and crowded; the product of someone that has gone crazy—color! fonts!—with newly affordable and accessible home publishing programs. It’s quite likely more people toss Reader out than actually read it. And when they do, they’re reading stories that are sometimes years old—what is that really worth?
Yet before waving away Reader’s editorial misdeeds, with a ‘Why bother?,’ it’s important not to forget the principle of it, nor the fact that while Reader rips off other print media—an industry we’ve heard isn’t doing so well these days—Reader’s operations hum along on the backs of others with ad revenues that appear to be growing and are celebrated on the Reader’s Facebook page:
From humble origins, The Reader Magazine has grown to become today one of the largest circulation publications in Southern California, reaching a readership that earns $8 billion.
The Reader is also getting fatter. Its latest Redlands edition was 40 pages, up from the its usual thirty-two.
Interesting, article, but I would expect a writer for CJR to know the proper use of its and it's:
"It’s design and layout are crummy and crowded..."
Disappointing. I see it all too often these days among journalists.
#1 Posted by Sally Bahner, CJR on Fri 28 Oct 2011 at 11:18 PM
The magazine should be the one RECEIVING the court notice to desist copying in part or in whole any one of the articles listed in your piece. If the publisher of the magazine isn't stopped now, he /she will become bolder and the authors listed or not listed in the articles will have even a more difficult time making them stop or getting them not to print it whole rather than even taking the time to leave out information or the author's name. Even then the court could have difficulty believing the author's dismay or stopping them simply because of the cuts in personnel on their end and lightness of the damage at this point. Also, it was allowed before, so why the fuss now???
Plagiarism on the computer is not new and is something high school kids try to do with teachers by one writing a report and then the author allows others to change their names and heading at the top and all--2 or more make copies and turn them in. I gave F's to all the papers alike since I found both the author that allowed it and the peers that copied guilty. One complained--"Ms So-and-So" didn't grade this way. and my only response was, I'm not her and besides the classes were all warned in advance not to copy. I still had to stay alert.
If high school kids think they can get away with plagiarism with both resource material and each others', they will do it later for college or work and be blacklisted. There is no excuse for the publisher in your article to be unaware of the illegality of what he did. If he were innocent, why did he not take part in a phone interview or response to e-mails sent him? He knew!!!
#2 Posted by trishjw, CJR on Sat 29 Oct 2011 at 12:40 PM
YAWN.
Some guy mooches content and uses it in a direct mail flyer.
Big deal. This isn't really journalism - it's direct mail advertising.
95% of these papers end up in trash bags or bird cages.
Plagiarism? Certainly. But what's the import to journalism?
#3 Posted by padikiller, CJR on Sun 30 Oct 2011 at 11:47 AM
well the publication does share ideas that many people may never come across otherwise because of the fact that it is mailed to people for free. I'd like to read about an expose on Time and how they check their facts or create them to suit the story, case in point:
http://www.vanguardblog.com/2009.10.14/bad-facts-bad-story.html
oh wait should I not have shared this ?! --- we need free press and free speech and free internet
#4 Posted by Cheryl, CJR on Wed 2 Nov 2011 at 12:07 AM
Good story. Don't listen to padikiller - this matters. The prevalence of plagiarism needs to be shown in all of it's forms.
I think one important/unmentioned lesson that readers should take away from this is that we should be checking these smaller publications more frequently because they may feel they can fly under the radar.
I caught my editor at my university newspaper plagiarizing - as well as a few other editors/writers - and it doesn't seem like it's a big deal to the journalists there that I have told, which is disheartening - so I find it aggravating to see that same apathy here just because this is advertisement material.
The import to journalism is that journalists face theft from many people such as Chris Theodore, and so should be informed/aware. The many journalists this guy ripped off seemed to think it was important.
#5 Posted by Brian Jensen, CJR on Sun 25 Dec 2011 at 05:28 PM
From Reader's Magazine website:
"At The Reader Magazine, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of ethical conduct and personal integrity. Our values are our strength and they guide us in all we do."
There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth.
#6 Posted by Josh, CJR on Fri 16 Mar 2012 at 11:05 PM