The folks doing the ripping off here probably don't even see it as such. While it's easy to attribute something like this to malice, it's saner to attribute it to staggering incompetence and lack of introspection. Pity the poor fools who are so unable to do something original that they must stoop to claiming someone else's originality as their own.
I've seen exactly this sort of thing before in all sorts of walks of life, from school work to academia, from corporate environments to international politics - a bunch of mediocre, confused, out of their depth but don't know it types take someone (singular or plural) else's idea, barely repackage it, claim it as their own, wholeheartedly convince themselves that it is their own, and run with it - far too often somehow winning the battle of hearts and minds, as when the original author comes along going "Oi!", their readership or allies go "sore loser".
I've learned by this point in life to take people using my work, even if they do so spitefully or in ignorance, as a compliment. Fabricators usually get shown up sooner or later.
I've seen exactly this sort of thing before in all sorts of walks of life, from school work to academia, from corporate environments to international politics - a bunch of mediocre, confused, out of their depth but don't know it types take someone (singular or plural) else's idea, barely repackage it, claim it as their own, wholeheartedly convince themselves that it is their own, and run with it - far too often somehow winning the battle of hearts and minds, as when the original author comes along going "Oi!", their readership or allies go "sore loser".
I've learned by this point in life to take people using my work, even if they do so spitefully or in ignorance, as a compliment. Fabricators usually get shown up sooner or later.