Permission is what's required. I get that he hates that, but that doesn't make him right.
He's using the number of other copies as a heuristic. But that heuristic fails when people want to spread their content, which is far less uncommon than he believes.
Permission is what's required to keep from getting sued, except that the DMCA keeps you from getting sued when it's user-submitted content. Permission isn't necessary at all. Maddox is promoting originality because it's a component of having a quality site. I'm sure he's aware that most of the people running those sites don't care about quality and is making an issue out of it because he wants other people to dislike the sites.
He's using the number of other copies as a heuristic. But that heuristic fails when people want to spread their content, which is far less uncommon than he believes.