When is plagiarism illegal

If you publish plagiarized material, the author of the original text might have legal grounds to sue you. If the author wins, you will have to pay damages, in addition to any legal fees you may incur during the process. The consequences of plagiarism vary depending on the type of plagiarism and the context in which it occurs.

For example, submitting a whole paper by someone else will have the most severe consequences, while accidental citation errors are considered less serious. As an academic or professional, plagiarizing seriously damages your reputation.

Plagiarism has serious consequences , and can indeed be illegal in certain scenarios. While most of the time plagiarism in an undergraduate setting is not illegal, plagiarism or self-plagiarism in a professional academic setting can lead to legal action, including copyright infringement and fraud. Many scholarly journals do not allow you to submit the same work to more than one journal, and if you do not credit a co-author, you could be legally defrauding them. While the exact consequences of plagiarism vary by institution and severity, common consequences include: a lower grade, automatically failing a course, academic suspension or probation, or even expulsion.

It can be easier than you think to commit plagiarism by accident. Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common examples of plagiarism. Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts. Have a language expert improve your writing.

Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes. Do the check. Generate your APA citations for free! APA Citation Generator. The Act contains three levels of offence: indictable, summary, and strict liability, each with different fault levels of fault.

Penalties range from imprisonment for up to 5 years to on the spot fines If infringement involves converting a work from a hard copy to an electronic form, the offence is aggravated with higher penalties This would include putting an infringing copy that previously existed on paper onto the Internet. There are also offences for music, film and TV piracy. The penalties for US copyright infringement are maximum imprisonment of one year.

Finally, those who infringe copyright on a global scale may fall foul of more than one copyright system. This is becoming more relevant due to the rise of the Internet where material can be accessed in any country. This includes orders for specific performance Damages may be awarded for losses suffered by the copyright holder. This is normally the price of a reasonable licence fee or royalties that the copyright owner could have charged for the work Courts can also grant additional damages for flagrant infringements , for example cynical or repeated infringements, or where the origins of a work have been deliberately disguised, such as by removing copyright notices or modifying it so it cannot be recognized This may apply to plagiarized written work.

Injunctions, damages and account of profits and orders for delivery up are also available for copyright infringement under Australian law Punitive damages may be awarded for blatant infringement Converting a hard copy into an electronic copy, for instance by typing up a print journal onto the Internet, may incur higher damages Damages aim to put the copyright owner in the position they would have been in had they owned the infringing copies Any profits claimed may be in additional to any damages for losses the claimant actually suffered due to the copyright infringement.

Therefore the claimant could recover much more than they have actually lost Courts may use punitive damages to deter future infringers Even if a plagiarist escapes civil or criminal sanctions, they may still face serious consequences. Plagiarism can result in the cancellation of publishing contracts. The publisher may also ban the author in the future and withdraw copies already on sale In extreme cases, publishers may even sue the writer for breach of contract, as most publishing contracts require the author to provide a warranty that their work is original Furthermore, any previous articles written by the plagiarist may also be subjected to scrutiny Academic penalties can range from being marked down to suspension, expulsion, and even withholding a degree.

In the UK, higher education institutions are empowered by the Education Reform Act to provide higher education and to do anything necessary or expedient for this purpose This includes entering into contracts, and setting up procedures for the appointment, suspension and dismissal of staff, and for the admission, suspension and expulsion of students In the UK, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator an independent body set up to deal with complaints against universities supported a university which gave a student no marks for an essay that contained inadequate referencing However, universities may not have absolute power to do whatever they like.

University Disciplinary Committees decide what penalties to impose on students for plagiarism. These are distinct from Examination Boards, which grade students based on their academic performance. Disciplinary Committees are subject to Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that a court or tribunal must act fairly according to the principles of natural justice, proportionality and consistency.

The court held that if an Examination Board played any role in the disciplinary process, then it would have to adopt the same procedures and take into account all the available evidence. Students must also be allowed to see all the evidence against them, be given notice of any proceedings, and be allowed representation by a lawyer if requested Under Article 6, any penalties imposed must also be proportionate to the offence, and should be accompanied by written reasons for the decision In one recent case, a student accused his university of negligence for failing to bring plagiarism to his notice.

Michael Gunn sued the University of Kent for failing him for plagiarism days before he was due to graduate, having said nothing about this while he carried on his studies Plagiarism policies may discriminate against students from overseas. The JISC recognizes that for some students, such as those who are home-schooled, reproducing large amounts of text is a way of showing they understand and are aware of this information Other foreign students may copy or paraphrase due to lack of confidence in writing English if it is not their native language However this does not seem overly fair, especially when universities receive good money to accept students from foreign countries.

As a result these policies may be open to challenge under the Human Rights Act Many academic institutions also utilize plagiarism detection sites and software such as Turnitin. In the USA, their use has already sparked a court case. The students went to schools that required the use of Turnitin. The schools also authorized Turnitin. The students claimed storing the digital copies amounted to copyright infringement.

He rejected the argument that there was no contract because the students were only minors and that they only agreed to use it under duress from the school. The 4th Circuit Appeal Court ruled that Turnitin. However this judgment ignores the fact that the students were only minors. The US Supreme Court has yet to rule on such a case, so this may signal the start of new challenges to the use of detection software.

Even if the plagiarist escapes criminal and civil sanctions, they may still suffer the loss of lucrative contracts, employment, academic marks, reputation and face possible expulsion. However academic decisions may be open to challenge, and may involve counterclaims of defamation, discrimination, abuse of personal information and procedural unfairness.

Copyright infringement and plagiarism are not the same thing, and one may be a plagiarist without infringing copyright, and vice versa. Also, moral rights are much weaker in these two countries.

There are severe criminal and civil penalties for commercial copyright infringement, and plagiarism can also have damaging academic and professional consequences. One answer would be to change the way university courses are taught, placing less reliance on traditional essay-writing, which encourages students to reproduce taught information in a slightly different form. Instead universities appear to be resorting to technology themselves to stamp out plagiarism.

Whether these methods are legal themselves remains to be seen. Golan v. Holder , S. Veeck v. Blum, S, My Word! Halpern, W, et al. Swannell, J ed. Burtchaell , U.

Entertainment, Inc. RDR Books , F. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Types of plagiarism The Harvard Guide to Using Sources 7 provides useful examples of unacceptable conduct. Problems with definitions However, though examples of plagiarism are numerous, there is much disagreement about when the rules should apply. What is copyright? Infringement Plagiarism policies and copyright law both cover a wide variety of activities.

How much can be copied? Sufficient acknowledgment Plagiarism is concerned with originality of work. Publication: does it matter? Ideas v Expression Another major difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement is that copyright generally protects only the expression of the work, not the ideas behind it. Conclusion Therefore copyright infringement in the UK differs from plagiarism in that only certain works are protected for a limited duration.

All works published before are in the public domain. Ideas v Expression US law does not protect ideas, only their expression. Moral Rights Moral Rights in the US are much more limited than in the UK, and are of little assistance to the copyright owner in preventing plagiarism.

Conclusion US copyright law is slightly weaker than UK law. Copyright subsistence The Copyright Act splits copyright works into two kinds. Infringement Authors have limited exploitation rights to reproduce, publish, rent or broadcast the work to the public, or to adapt the work, or to authorize someone else to do any of these things Moral rights Like the UK, Australian law recognizes the moral rights of paternity, integrity, and the right against false attribution. Privacy Rights. Social media is an excellent way to promote your business, but before you start posting, it's important to understand the potential legal implications of your activity.

Copyright protection for your music is granted automatically when you record the song, but if you want the full power of the law behind you, you have to register the copyright.

Find out how to register the copyright for your music and more. Businesses have a variety of copyright options to protect their website and content. Plagiarism: What is it, Exactly?

The Problem With Plagiarism Plagiarism has been a problem in schools and universities for years, but has become even more prevalent with the birth of the Internet. Legal Ramifications of Plagiarism Although plagiarism is not a criminal or civil offense, plagiarism is illegal if it infringes an author's intellectual property rights, including copyright or trademark. Combating Plagiarism Although proving plagiarism isn't always easy, there are electronic sources that can help combat plagiarism.

About the Author Stephanie Morrow Stephanie Morrow has been a contributor to LegalZoom since and has written about nearly all aspects of law, from ta… Read more. Related Topics. Facebook Twitter. This portion of the site is for informational purposes only. The content is not legal advice. The statements and opinions are the expression of the author, not LegalZoom, and have not been evaluated by LegalZoom for accuracy, completeness, or changes in the law.

You may also like. Copyrights 5 Things You Can't Copyright In order to qualify for copyright protection, an original creative work must exist in tangible form—in other words, written down or in a form you can touch.

Fair use is vague and if often based upon someone's own personal judgment. The more copyrighted material a person uses, the greater the risk of copyright infringement. But, in general, if a student uses a piece of assignment from an academic or professional that is for the purpose of enhancing the quality of their college work or critiquing, and if the piece is properly referenced, then they should avoid any copyright infringement issues.

Read also: Top 10 Websites to Check for Plagiarism. If a student plans to use a copyrighted piece of material for a large majority of their assignment, for example, a Ph.

Permission of the author is a way to avoid a potential legal offense. A student should define the purpose of their intent for the paper and contact the author clearly stating the use. This process can be lengthy and should be considered months in advance of starting a paper to make sure that permission is granted before getting too involved in a paper only to find they don't have permission.

Writers can take time responding to requests, and people should be prepared for this and persistent. All colleges vary in punishment for plagiarism and in their opinion on is plagiarism illegal or not. A serious case may result in a hearing, and a student will need to present a case to a board.

This generally happens if a lot of assignment has been plagiarised, like a whole extract, or direct quotes and opinion pieces that are identical to that of the original author. This can result in a student being expelled.