Why am I not surprised that Ashton Kutcher‘s website, A+, has been accused of plagiarising ENTIRE pieces of content from other sites like The Huffington Post and Buzzfeed? A+ was created as a positive space for viral content, but it seems they’re just yanking everyone else’s and claiming it as their own. Oops?
From The Wrap:
Internet news site The Daily Dot has been investigating A+ and found that it has lifted entire stories, listicles and videos with very minor changes in the content and without properly crediting the source. It has recorded and screen-grabbed a large amount of content from the site.
A+ has since removed the questionable content after The Daily Dot asked for comment,” according to The Guardian. It also reported that A+ has removed all content posted before July from the site, all tweets before Aug. 6 and all Facebook posts before Aug. 8.
A spokesperson for A+ told the newspaper:“We take these allegations seriously and are looking into them. The content that was removed was taken down as a precautionary measure.
“Respecting the intellectual property of others is extremely important to us.”
I mean, it’s not like I can really blame Ashton – chances are he’s not involved with the site at all, beyond being the big name used to get traffic there. However, I can only imagine the type of douchertons who run the site and their lax editorial standards.
When will people learn that you can’t get away with plagiarism on the internet? YOU WILL GET CAUGHT. You will get fired. You will not be hired again in this industry. What’s wrong with people?