Plagiarism and Copyrights

Plagiarism is when a person uses someone else’s ideas, thoughts and words for their own personal use in school, work and other areas. It usually occurs because someone either writes exactly what the other person has written or too closely to what they have written trying to paraphrase. Most people believe, especially younger students, that as long as they use some of their own thought’s and words then it would not be considered plagiarism and until they are taught differently and develop a better understanding this will continue. Another way to plagiaries is to directly buy or steal someone else’s work. This has been a popular way in the past but with today’s technology it is very easily discovered, making it very hard for someone to pass the work off as their own. The last way a person can plagiarize is usually done unintentionally. This happens when someone uses another person’s words intentionally but unintentionally forgets to write their source in their paper giving credit where credit is due.

The Copyright Act is a law that has been in affect since 1976. It was put into place to protect the artist, whether in music, art or literature, from being pirated by other individuals. It protects the use of published or unpublished works, for ones own use, without permission from the creator. This is most commonly used in the illegal reproduction of DVDs and CDs with the intent to sell or just freely give to the public, friends and family. Even though this law was put into affect to protect the creator from someone taking and using their work, most people disregard it. The copyright act is still in place but until there is a way to discover and identify when an artist work is being reproduced and distributed illegally it will continue to be a part of everyday life around the world.