In music, art, and dance, you will see themes inspired if not outright copied; that's the reason for the existence of styles. Rock and roll music is full of borrowed riffs, copied drum patterns, etc. Almost all 70's disco music used very similar drum patterns. I think this kind of thing is OK and necessary, actually, to allow an art form to evolve.

But to wholesale copy 90% or 95% of someone's creation, as in some of the examples in the article, crosses a line. Imagine someone wholesale copying the famous opening guitar riff from Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven -- there would be outrage from the fans, and undoubtedly a lawsuit would follow.

I think the only reason this fellow Parker has gotten away with it for so long is that he's in a more obscure field where it's a lot less obvious to uncover plagiarism without an intentional check, as someone has finally done.

“We don’t look at anybody else’s puzzles or really care about anyone else’s puzzles,” Parker said.

I don't believe that for one second. Someone in the profession for all these years, and he never looks at NYT puzzles?