AOL famously pioneered this model and today most major tech blogs we see on HN have adopted it at least partially.
Yesterday TNW got called out for doing it, their CEO mentioned that it was 'normal' and he's pretty much right ... plagiarism is normal for modern blogging, unless somehow it's different when Engadget, TheVerge, Gizmodo, CNet, TorrentFreak, everyone related to Apple rumors etc do it.
What is the difference between The Verge rewriting FastCompany's article [1] and the TNW [2] event?
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/15/3021574/google-plus-study-weak-public-activity-engagement
[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3972651