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Was Guffey's free pamphlet copyrighted? I see no copyright info anywhere on http://eeb.bio.utk.edu/darwin/index.htm, nor is there one on the .pdf of the free pamphlet, nor is there any copyright mentioned in any of the articels I found while searching the web.
If there was no copyright, there was no plagiarism. Lazy scholarship perhaps (or perhaps not, it isn't like there is a lot to change when recounting the basic events of Darwin's life, and there are additional details in Comfort's writing that is not Guffey's), but I am not aware of any laws against using short excerpts of freely distributed, non-copyrighted materials.
This makes sense on the legal front as well... Guffey's attorney is only considering a cease-and-desist letter, not a cease-and-desist order. You don't even have to be a lawyer to send a c&d LETTER. I can write a c&d letter to my neighbor for where he built his fence if I wanted. It doesn't mean I am right or that he has done anything wrong.
If there were copyright infringement, I imagine they would be threatening a c&d ORDER through a judge, or flat out suing for plagiarism. Since they are just threatening a c&d LETTER, it leads me to believe that Guffey doesn't have any legal leg to stand on. His pamphlet wasn't copyrighted.
If you have information contrary to this, please let me know. Until then, I call shenanigans on Guffey and his evolutionist supporters who merely like to harass creationists and others who reject evolution.
