Columbus Foodie

Well, it looks like I’ve finally made the big time. (j/k) I’ve joined such illustrious bloggers like Pim and Haalo (two of my favorites, btw) in getting my content stolen by one “Chef” Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. I don’t know whether to be pissed or flattered, really. I mean, it’s not even a good picture, compared to some others on my site. I checked his site closely after Haalo made a post about 4 or 5 other instances of his fraud/theft.

He stole my picture of the rum cake I made last year, from this post. And the funny thing? After I made a comment about the pic on Haalo’s entry, my pic disappeared off of his site (without even a “by your leave” or apology – it’s OK since I hate insincere apologies anyway, and since he’s a serial content thief). Too bad for him that I took a screen shot of the offending entry on his site before posting the comment:

While I would expect this kind of nonsense from your run of the mill Google Ad spammer, I hate to say that I expected more from someone who is supposedly a Kansas City institution, and who obviously has more training than I do. You have an entire restaurant and staff at your disposal, ingredients to make your own awesome dishes, and you resort to stealing a recipe for rum cake that uses a boxed cake mix? Really?

With so much to lose (a restaurant, work w/ the media (a radio show, regular media coverage), I wonder about his motivations – is ganking a bunch of pictures from food bloggers really worth if it costs you your reputation, that you’ve obviously put a lot of work into building? I guess the one thing Jasper doesn’t realize is that us bloggers communicate virally – and in an industry where your business is affected by public perception, do you really want to earn a reputation as a talentless hack who can’t generate their own content? I didn’t think so.

So, to be honest, I’m more confused than pissed. And just wanted to give a heads up to any of you other food bloggers to check his archives and see if any of your pics have been ganked as well. I never thought mine would be, let alone be among the most excellent (and professional looking) ones he took from others.

PS – I guess fraud runs in the family, according to this document. Judging by the date, I can see the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree (looks like it’s dad, not Jr.) and he comes by his dishonesty honestly.

PPS – He’s made his blog “invite only” now – guess he wanted to get that baby offline before more examples of his photo theft came to light. Too bad there are cached pages floating around the internet, huh?