01What happened

The story, straight

An unidentified agency created a near-exact clone of John Koenig's The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — a decade-long project cataloging 311 made-up words for unnamed emotions — by republishing the entire text of his bestselling book on a polished website, swapping out Koenig's original illustrations for AI-generated images, and adding a banner inviting visitors to generate their own words using AI. The site was discovered last week by a MetaFilter member who posted about it. It includes Koenig's full foreword, all 311 neologisms with definitions, etymologies, and essays, but strips the original photo-collage artwork by Koenig and other contributing artists, replacing each entry with DALL-E 2 images bearing the model's typical artifacts and errors.

someone cloned John Koenig's entire Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — the book, the website, all 311 words and essays — and launched it under a different name. the original art by Koenig and other artists got swapped for DALL-E 2 images, complete with all the weird artifacts you'd expect. a MetaFilter user caught it last week.

02Spread timeline

Where it actually started

Jun 2026Origin
A MetaFilter member posts a link discovering a cloned version of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows website.MetaFilter user flags the cloned Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows site.
source
Jun 20, 2026
Andy Baio (waxy.org) publishes a detailed write-up of the plagiarism, cataloging the full text theft, AI image replacements, and missing artist credits.Andy Baio at waxy.org breaks down the full scope of the clone — all text, no original art, AI images everywhere.
source

03Source receipts

Every claim, linked

04What's solid, what isn't

What's solid and what isn't

Confirmed
  • John Koenig's The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — a bestselling book and decade-long project — was cloned on a website that republished its full text of 311 entries with foreword.
  • The original photo-collage illustrations by Koenig and other artists were replaced with AI-generated DALL-E 2 images.
  • The cloned site includes a banner promoting AI-generated word creation.
  • The clone was first surfaced by a MetaFilter user and documented by Andy Baio on waxy.org.
Disputed
  • The identity of the agency or individual behind the cloned site.
  • Whether Koenig or his publisher have taken legal action.
  • Whether the site has been taken down or is still live.
Developing
  • Legal response from Koenig or his publisher — no statement reported yet.
  • Potential DMCA or copyright enforcement action.

05Why it matters

The editorial take

This is a brazen case of wholesale plagiarism laundered through AI tooling. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows isn't a niche side project — it's a bestselling book from a decade-plus cultural phenomenon. The replacement of credited human artists' work with AI-generated images while republishing an author's full copyrighted text represents a playbook that could be applied to any book with a public-facing website.

this is the playbook, stripped bare. take a popular book, swap the art for AI slop, slap a 'generate your own' banner on it, and pretend it's yours. Koenig's project took over a decade. someone reproduced the entire thing in an afternoon.