Is HuffPo Stealing Content?

According to Whet Moser on Chicago Reader, Huffington Post is lifting entire concert previews from online media covering the Chicago arts scene. According to Moser, this isn't an isolated case or two, but an ongoing series:

If you go to their Chicago Concerts page, there's a whole list of concert previews from us, Time Out Chicago, Centerstage, and the Onion's Decider--and they're just taking entire pieces.

Moser goes on to provide side-by-side examples that are just a click away. HuffPo does give credit to the source and writer, but according to Moser's post, fails to ask anyone at the publications if it's OK. Presumably none of that $25 million influx of money is going to the outlets that actually do the work, though maybe the editor who writes new headlines for each is getting paid something.

This is disgraceful. Either Huffington and her business, not social undertaking, is willing to play by the legal, ethical, and moral rules, or they are indulging in complete hypocrisy every time they skewer conservatives for supposedly not doing enough for those with too little. Or is this just an example of faux do-gooders deciding that their "missions" excuse them from the niceties that bind the rest of us? As far as I'm concerned, if you take something without permission and without payment, it's theft. And HuffPo does get something out of this, as my BNET colleague David Weir points out:

Note to Arianna: This is not kosher! Of coure, it’s doubtful that Huffington herself is even aware of this practice, but somebody in her organization knows what they are doing. This would appear to be an attempt to bolster the amount of content, which on the web correlates directly with increased traffic, and boosting SEO, which yields highly-valued organic (free) search engine traffic.