Plagiarism and Copyrights

Plagiarism is basically when you are taking credit for someone else’s idea, thought, or art. This can happen intentionally and unintentionally. Intentional plagiarism happens when ideas are out right bought or stolen. Unintentional plagiarism is usually because the student has failed to cite the source of the information obtained. One of the most common forms of plagiarism is paraphrasing too closely to the original text. Students sometimes think if they just change a few words around then they are safe from plagiarizing. As teachers, we must teach students what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in gathering information and using it.

The Copyright Act basically protects the reproducing and distributing of art, literature and music without the creator’s permission to do so. This law protects the creator from someone taking their work and using or distributing it for their own benefit. This also protects unpublished work as well as published. One common violation of this copyright act is burning DVDs of movies and music CDs then distributing them to the public through friends. By doing this, the creator, whether an individual or large company, is being robbed. Even though this law has been in affect since 1976, many people tend to disregard it.