Introduction 8: Plagiarism and Copyright

Plagiarism

Intellectual property is a concept considered later in this course. The ideas and creative works of an individual belong to that person. Other people are not allowed to use those ideas without the permission of the author. In written work, submitting the ideas of another person without acknowledging their source is called plagiarism.

When you are writing a paragraph, essay, or other assignments, your ideas must be your own. Quoting a passage from a book, magazine, newspaper, or website to support your point of view or illustrate an idea might be an excellent idea. However, you must cite the reference according to recognized standards. You will learn more about citing references later in this course.

The following video will help you understand how to avoid plagiarism...

 

Copyright and You

Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the government to protect the ownership of a particular expression of an idea or information. It covers any original work a person produces, such as written materials, art, and photographs. Usually, these rights have limited duration. If you write an essay, poem, or short story or if you paint a picture or take a photo, you automatically own the copyright to that material unless the work was part of your paid job.

That means you can copy it, sell it, or make other versions of it. However, no one else is entitled to use it without your permission. Unless you or your descendants take action to protect the copyright, after a certain period of time (depending on the country), the copyright expires and the work becomes part of the public domain. Copyright in Canada generally expires fifty years after the death of the author.

Images are also owned by the artist or photographer who produced them. Just as you are technically capable of cutting and pasting chunks of someone else's writing into an essay, you are also able to take images from the Internet. However, using images without permission is not acceptable. In this course, you will find numerous images—all images are used either with the written permission of the photographer or copyright holder or because they have been released into the public domain.

The following icons describe the rights that are associated with the images in this course. Keep in mind that, when you use images from the Internet for your own use, you should cite the source.

GNU Free Licence: The image, text, or software in question can be reused under the terms of the GNU license. Basically, it can be used, re-used, improved upon, and studied so long as improvements made are also made available to others. Public Domain: The image is in the public domain if no laws restrict its use by the public at large. This can mean the original copyright has expired, the image was created by a government agency for public use, or that the copyright was not renewed by the original copyright owner.
Creative Commons Licence - Some rights reserved: The copyright holder or artist has released the image for all legal uses with some reservations. Usually, this means that users may use the image as long as the photographer or artist is credited. Creative Commons Licence: The copyright holder or artist has released the image for all legal uses with no reservations.