I think that we can safely assume that if something directly comparable but much worse, both ethically and legally, has occurred (e.g. doctors being bribed by pharma companies to over-prescribe their drug), then it's not a stretch to give this claim the benefit of the doubt.

Anecdotally, I once had a professor who had personally remixed an existing textbook and forced us to buy his version for the class, because he would reference page numbers and chapter headings from his version. Admittedly, this is essentially what most "nth edition" textbooks do anyways, but it was a little jarring to see him personally emulate this so directly and unscrupulously.