Health & Fitness
Plagiarism and the Web
Many people feel that information, music, graphics, and content found on the "web" is free for the taking. The bottom line is, just because information is on the web, it is not a license to steal!
Educators who have been teaching for any length of time could probably share a story or two of student plagiarism. Like the student who copied another student’s paper word for word, including the other student’s name! College professors and high ranking officials have been forced to resign their positions after being caught plagiarizing.
According to Plagiarism.org, plagiarism is “an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.” It ascertains that the dictionary meaning of “copying” and “borrowing” disguise the seriousness of the offence.
Many people feel that information, music, graphics, and content found on the “web” is free for the taking. I was appalled recently to find out that a web designer creating a site for a pediatric office used graphics found on the web without permission. They are now facing an expensive lawsuit!
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Recently, while I was researching information, I came upon an article on About.com. In reading the article, I realized that the suggestions in the article were very familiar – they had copied word for word from a website that I designed and managed! After I contacted them they removed their page. All I wanted was a website credit as the source!
If you are a student, or teacher using content for educational use, there is more leeway, but sources still need to be cited. Easybib and the Citation Machine are two sites that will help you to cite your sources. You plug in the information from the source and the site will generate the citation for you. Both support MLA and APA formats.
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Turnitin.com is a source that many schools use to scan for originality. The site has a huge database of books, websites and student works to compare information submitted. Every time a paper is submitted, it then adds to this database.
If you need graphics to use for your website or publication, iStock Photos has a large volume of graphics that can be purchased at reasonable rates. In addition there are many royalty free graphic sources.
The Purdue Online Writing Lab has an extensive site for research and citation. In addition, the University of Maryland has information on the “fair use” of material as it pertains to the copyright laws.
The bottom line is, just because information is on the web, it is not a license to steal!
