The sad part is they're completely wrong and that would never happen anyway. The main reason I'm writing this is because I've had my article stolen four times. If you look way back into the archive for 5 Easy Steps To Making Money Blogging, that's the one that seems to be a popular article for thievery.
I was playing around with Google, checking my rankings (not high at all) and I saw an exact copy and paste of that article on some other random Blogspot site that had no other content other than my article and a million ads from across the internet. I was extremely offended and I left a comment immediately letting him/her know it. The only thing I can say was good about this whole spiel was the fact that it felt great catching someone in the act.
On a more serious note, if you're thinking about just taking content from someone else and putting it on your page, do it the right way. Link to them. Bloggers love links! You can write your own article and if it is related to theirs, link to it! There's no reason that anyone can't come up with their own intelligent articles. I know that most people who do so are highly misinformed and are most likely trying to get a quick buck through AdSense. Which doesn't happen unless you're getting at least 10,000 visitors a day. Good luck getting that with one article.
Just remember that if you really admire someone's work, then give them a link, help them out, talk to the webmaster, tell him/her that you put a link up and that you like their articles. In most cases, webmasters and bloggers alike will appreciate this and help you out in return. Bloggers aren't competitive in most cases. Sure they want to be ranked first on Google for a specific keyword, but in most cases, all the Pro Bloggers you see dominating search engines and hit counters are all helping each other out with links, reviews, and more.
One of the major requirements for Blogging is creativity. Be creative, use your imagination (even if you're an adult, we all know that you're 21 on the inside, or so you keep telling your nephews and nieces each birthday). Making money online isn't hard as long as you're dedicated and willing to keep at it. These are not common signs of a content thief, so I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at. In case you don't, I'm going to summarize it all up right here:
Don't steal! If you can't do it yourself, don't!
