Plagiarism. We all know it. We all love it.
Hmph.
As a writer, I've learned to expect plagiarism and copyright infringement- not because my work is always particularly worthy of plagiarism though I will admit, I make myself proud on occasion, but because common sense is really lacking in many circles- and deal with it accordingly. As a blogger, however, I never considered that these things would be an issue. After all, blogging is all about personal opinion and surely everyone is capable of forming their own, no matter how uninformed, opinions on things... right?
I have since changed my mind for two reasons. First off is that I've discovered firsthand that blogging isn't always personal opinion. I can no longer count the number of blogs I've written that have been more research than opinion in nature. The second reason, sadly enough, is that I have officially become another statistic (again). Bummer.
I suppose that I should toss a third reason in there... I've lost count of the number of blogs (here on PU alone) that have been plagiarized all to hell.
With that being said, it's time for a little brush up, fellow bloggers, on what constitutes plagiarism.
The dictionary says: "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work" (dictionary.com).
The good folks at the OWL at Purdue have listed several things that everyone should familiarize themselves with:
* Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium
* Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing
* When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase
* When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials
* When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media (OWL, n.d.).
Several terms ago I took my first forensic psychology class. Before midterms, most of the class was doing really well. Our midterms, however, changed all of that. In one fell swoop a class of twenty five passing students became a class of two passing students. And to top it off, all but those two were turned in for plagiarism. What happened? Sources weren't cited. It wasn’t intentional, but in the end, the intentions didn’t matter.
Hand in hand with plagiarism comes copyright infringement. Let’s take a quick look at that shall we?
“Copyright infringement is using someone else's work without getting that person's permission. The author of any original work, including books, essays, Web pages, songs, pictures, and videos, automatically gets the copyright to that work, even if she doesn't label it with the copyright symbol and her name” (Plagiarism Checker, n.d.).
A copyright lasts for the life of the author, plus 70 years. The University of North Carolina has a listing of when things become public domain to help everyone figure out when something is no longer protected by copyright: http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
Unlike plagiarism, copyright infringement can and does result in legal action. Yes folks, you can be sued for using someone else’s work without permission. And it has been my experience that most people don’t give a flying flip if you know the rules of copyright infringement or not.
The bottom line is if you didn't write it and you're using it without giving credit it is plagiarism. If you are reposting or using someone else’s work without permission, it might just be copyright infringement. We were all born with enough common sense to know when we didn’t write something ourselves, let’s use it shall we?
If you didn’t write it, give credit and link to the original information. If you can’t find author information, make a note of it and post a reference linking to the original. Simple enough, yes?
References:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/02/
http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/plagiarism-vs-copyright.php
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
