Cooks Source Editorial Debacle – or, "Blatant stupidity on the internet? No, never!"

Doing my good deed for the day and helping to spread the word on this.
An editor for Cooks Source, purportedly with \”three decades\” of experience, apparently thought he could swipe someone\’s article without permission or compensation.  When she discovered this and protested to him, he had the temerity to reply:

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!

No, Virginia, the internet is not public domain.  Yes, Virginia, there is a copyright.  And yes, the editor is currently liable for statutory damages.  I\’ve seen some pretty dumb moves on the internet, but this is high in the ranks.  I wonder how much Cooks Source is enjoying their copyright infringement now?  And I wonder how many people are checking their back issues right this moment for other cases, so that the original authors can be informed?  After all, our good editor as much as said he\’d done this before…  I have a feeling there may be a strong case of multiple-lawsuititis afflicting Cooks Source before too long.
You can read about this from the author here, a friend of hers here, and you can join thousands of people blasting the idiot editor on the magazine\’s Facebook page here.  Oh, and John Scalzi has added his 40,000 hits per day blog to the damages here!
I\’m trying to figure out if I\’m more miffed at the editor for being an asshat, or more amused because of how badly this whole bit of blatant stupidity has blown up in his face.