BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith said the site has fired Benny Johnson for 41 instances of plagiarism.
Millennials live in a world of indiscriminate social media sharing–of stupid cat videos apparently–likely the primary reason they fail to understand and honor intellectual property rights. However, the penalties for stealing the works or words of others is often catastrophic, leading to penalties from loss of livelihood to legal penalties of up to $150,000 per occurrence.
As Benny Johnson learned, if something is not your work alone, you better get permission from the creator and give appropriate credit, or you could lose everything that’s important to you. Even when you just write stupid lists for entertainment.
Source: BuzzFeed fires viral politics editor for plagiarizing – Jul. 26, 2014