PLAGIARISM &

COPYRIGHT LAW

Where do we always see

this…

…and how do we usually respond to it?

If we usually just fast forward through it, or ignore it and go get more popcorn, what’s the purpose of it being there…

The reason we can’t duplicate it and give it to our friends, or make a bunch of copies and sell them on EBay is because a movie is someone else’s

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Copying someone else’s work – work that they spent time and money and brain power to create - is like putting their brain up for sale. Aside from being strange and just not right, it’s illegal.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

If we copy someone’s work and try to make money with it, it is a crime called

COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT,

and, like we were warned, we could get punished…

What types of WORK are considered INTELLECTUAL

PROPERTY?MUSIC

SOFTWARE

VIDEO GAMES

DVD or VIDEO MOVIES

BOOKS or ANY PUBLISHED WRITTEN WORDS

Plagiarism is a lesser degree of Copyright Infringement – it’s taking someone else’s work and using it, but not to make money.

If Copyright Infringement is like putting someone else’s brain up for sale, Plagiarism is like stealing part of their brain.

Then what is

Plagiarism?

Plagiarism in SCHOOLIn school, copying another author’s writing, such as from a dictionary or a

library book or from a website, is

plagiarism. If you do it, you won’t go to jail, but the

penalties are still pretty harsh.

For example, in the Student Code of

Conduct…

Mrs. Sparkes gives Sarah an assignment to create a timeline on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Pretty cool!

Sarah thinks, “Where can I find information?”

What plagiarism looks like…

Well… my textbook, or maybe a library book on the Roman Empire, or, let’s try the INTERNET!

So Sarah gets on the INTERNET……and Googles:

There are over a million results, so the first few will have to do…

The third site looks good……so Sarah clicks on the link and it opens up.

“Wow,” she thinks, “that’s almost exactly what my teacher just ask me to do. No point doing it all over again when it already seems perfect.” So, very carefully, Sarah highlights the text and hits COPY.

With a new WORD document open…

…Sarah hits PASTE.

Sarah thinks to herself, “This is great – I’m almost done. I can spend the next few hours changing the fonts and adding pictures. That way, I’m not copying.

Wow – I love the Internet!”

But What’s the Problem?What Sarah just did is called

COPY-AND-PASTE Plagiarism.Among students, it is the most common

type of plagiarism.

&

But, it’s just as bad to…

Print/Photocopy Plagiarism (Internet & Books)

Printing or photocopying Images/Statistics/Tables/Timelines from a source and pasting them to a project board.

Word-for-Word Plagiarism (Internet & Encyclopedia)

Looking at the screen or at a book and copying the words directly into a presentation or report.

So Sarah turns in the assignment.

Unfortunately for Sarah, cut-and-paste plagiarism is also the easiest to catch.

Mrs. Sparkes suspects something fishy is going on, so she opens up the internet on her computer and googles a line from Sarah’s timeline, with quotation marks around the phrase.

Uh-oh…The second website on the list

reveals the timeline that was cut-and-pasted onto Sarah’s

assignment.

What’s the punishment…

The first time:

1. The proof is the print out of the website.

2. Parents are contacted

3. Sarah gets a ZERO on her project

If Sarah does it again…

1. It is a Level 3 Violation and the issue goes under “Administrative Review.” This is not good.

So, Here’s your Warning…