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Comment by adamesque | Hacker News Reader

Her business is to work "with small food-oriented businesses and farms to get the word out on their works/products". The vehicle is publishing, and I get the feeling she's using the magazine the same way a lot of normal people use their computers: as a means to an end.

If I had to guess, I'd wager that's why she doesn't understand copyright. Her area of expertise (and I use that word with a HUGE grain of salt) is food and local business.

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"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."

I concede that Cooks Source is a small local mag, not a publishing empire (like, say, Cooks Illustrated.) But I would counter that working "with small food-oriented businesses" is her mission, not her business. She accepts advertising for the magazine, and therefore it has become a business in the traditional sense.

That's fair, but the reason she's taken so much heat is that she blasted the author whose work was stolen, citing decades of experience that gave her authority on copyright law. If her area of expertise is food, then she has no business citing her business in editorial work as a viable defense.

It's similar to development and development management. They require different skills - being a good developer doesn't mean you'll be a good development manager and vice versa.

Similarly being a journalist (which is about research and writing) is very different to being an editor (which is about organisation and the commercial side of things).

That said, her level of knowledge seems insufficient for either role. The basics of copyright law would seem to be a pre-requisite for anything involving writing these days.

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