 | |||
| Source from Stutterstock |
The birth of Internet has made life easier for users; a wide range of information will pop up on the screen just by clicking the mouse. However, there is a growing concern about the unfair use of copyrighted material whereby people do not often seek permission before using the material, which has certainly led to the rise of online plagiarism.
An article ‘Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use’ which was featured in a blog post by Pichon revealed that, Wayne Hoehn was sued by a copyright holding company for reposting a copyrighted article on a discussion site. Owing to his posting was not correlated to any commercial purpose; he was then pardoned by judges.
Generally, those who copy and reproduce copyrighted digital content without permission are deemed to be doing something illegal. The copyright fair use law allows public to copy or distribute copyrighted materials in a reasonable manner without the owner's permission (Stim, 2011). To avoid the misinterpretation of ‘fair use’, copyrighted works can only be used for specific purposes such as criticism, teaching, news reporting, comment, scholarship and research (Blackboard Inc, 2000).
Instead, plagiarism has a different meaning, which is representing someone else's work as your own (Blackboard Inc, 2000). Plagiarism occurs when someone fails to credit the works of another author when using their information. According to the discussed article, some editors willing to oversee minor plagiarism especially when a deadline is due. Presnall (cited in Snow, n.d) explains that ‘although the technology of catching plagiarism currently has the upper hand, the technology of cheating will eventually evolve to beat it—which will lead to more sophisticated detection systems, leading in turn to better cheating systems’. Thus, the problem of plagiarism will not come to an end.
 |
| (Source from: Maisagonzalez) |
In conclusion, we should have a basic understanding of what is fair and unfair use of copyrighted materials so that we aware of what we can or cannot do with other people’s work. Being an ethical and responsible blogger and journalist, we should follow the appropriate ways when using other’s material to avoid plagiarism and being sued by the company and creator.
Reference
Blackboard Inc 2000, Copyright, fair Use, & Educational Multimedia FAQ, viewed 15 November 2011,
Blackboard Inc 2000, Copyright, fair Use, & Educational Multimedia FAQ, viewed 15 November 2011,
Pichon, F 2011,'Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use, World Editor Forum blog posting', 22 June, viewed 15 November 2011,
Snow, E (n.d), Teaching Students about Plagiarism: An Internet Solution to an Internet Problem, viewed 15 November 2011,
<http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol2_issue5/Teaching_Students_about_Plagiarism-__An_Internet_Solution_to_an_Internet_Problem.pdf>.
Stim, R 2011, The 'Fair Use' Rule: When Use of Copyrighted Material is Acceptable, viewed 15 November 2011,
Stim, R 2011, The 'Fair Use' Rule: When Use of Copyrighted Material is Acceptable, viewed 15 November 2011,
No comments:
Post a Comment