Monday, February 9, 2015

The Difference between Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement


Plagiarism is complex and emotive issue, perhaps because of so, many people including myself, are confused about the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement. The paleontologist Mike Taylor has put together the differences between plagiarism and copyright infringement, and posted "Plagiarism is nothing to do with copyright"
“First, plagiarism is a violation of academic norms but not illegal; copyright violation is illegal, but in truth pretty ubiquitous in academia. Second, plagiarism is an offence against the author, while copyright violation is an offence against the copyright holder.Third, plagiarism applies when ideas are copied, whereas copyright violation occurs only when a specific fixed expression (e.g. sequence of words) is copied. Fourth, avoiding plagiarism is about properly apportioning intellectual credit, whereas copyright is about maintaining revenue streams."  He concluded that, plagiarism is about the failure to properly attribute the authorship of copied material, eg. ideas, text or images; Copyright violation is about failure to pay for the use of the materials. Which of the two issues that we care more, will depend on whether we are in a situation where intellectual credit or money is being more important. 
Do you agree with his opinions here? Where do you see the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement?

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