If a new comedian changed the existing 'why did the chicken cross the road?' joke to 'why did the duck cross the road?' and claimed it as a new joke they invent

If a new comedian changed the existing 'why did the chicken cross the road?' joke to 'why did the duck cross the road?' and claimed it as a new joke they invented, then that would not be ok, in my opinion. However, that's not really my primary issue with this article, as I've said in a couple other comments here, my issue is that 'the epsilon method' itself is not a new idea or concept. Both 'copying' and 'copying with slight differences' are already well known by everyone everywhere. So much so that there are whole bodies of law that attempt to define when its ok and when it isn't. The article is presenting this as a novel and insightful idea when it is not.