Stupidity or Complete Stupidity?

I got this from a few sites; Ansible (top right hand corner in the October section) and How Publishing Really Works among others, the source is here.

It's sort of caught fire on the Internet and exploded into bad publicity for Richard Ridyard - although he probably wont care. But he should understand that The Internet's Always Going To Get You. A few people have pointed out the futility of plagiarising, as, in this day and age, it will be noted a lot easier and quicker. But some people still try it.  The funniest (saddest?) thing about some of his plagiarising is that he plagiarised Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft! Can anyone imagine Richard Ridyard actually thinking the thought ‘No one’s going to notice this’? Aside from the obvious distaste in plagiarism there seems to be a certain amount of delusion involved in it also.

I have came across a few instances of plagiarism reported in blogs before this incident, so some people obviously think it’s worth trying. Apparently all he mostly did was replace words with similar words and change names. There were some instances of him being paid for the stories; so I suppose he was successful in that he was paid for his plagiarising. He may have profited from it but he hasn’t got away with it, as the furore shows: he wont be able to sell under the name Richard Ridyard again in a lot of markets across the Internet.