Is plagiarism a crime?

Question

If so, how is plagiarism defined in legal terms?

Answer 1

Only if the original material is under copyright, and then it would be a violation of the copyright laws. You can steal from Shakespeare as much as you please.

Answer 2

If you are taking from a copyrighted work, it is illegal. If you are taking from non-copyrighted works it is not generally illegal, but highly unethical.

In some instances, such as in college papers, it would be a violation of the school's rules and standards. Those "laws" and the definition of just what is plagiarism would vary from place to place.

Answer 3

In a sense yes, although I don't think there is any criminal offemse associated with it. Perhaps there may be civil penalties that can be assessed.

Plagerism in basic terms is passing off someone elses work as your own particularly with writing (essay's news articles etc...).

When writing you can quote and use other people's work if it supoprts your theory or ideas, but you have to give the original source the proper credit, typically in a footnote or endnote.

Answer 4

no, plagiarism refers more to academics or journalists taking credit for work that is not their own. While technically copyright infringement may be involved in plagiarism, they are distinct.

Copyright infringement involves the unauthorized use of intellectual property of another. Copyright infringement can include, but is not limited to, piracy and fraud.

Answer 5

To me, usually, the regulation purely looks to conceal tangible issues while making plagiarism criminal. So issues that could be secure making use of copyright, trademark or patent regulation are frequently quite unlawful to plagiarise. yet a organic concept which you overheard or have been informed on a similar time as no longer under a non-disclosure settlement would not be legally secure and you'd be quite loose to apply it without acknowledging the guy whose theory it became into, till you have been breaking another regulation so as to be in a position to hear the assumption (e.g. in case you have been trespassing on inner maximum sources). i think of maximum folk could nonetheless evaluate it unethical to plagiarise, although. Please do no longer take this as criminal advice, via fact i'm no longer qualified to grant criminal advice.

Answer 6

Ask Alex Haley he got nailed for it with the book 'Roots'. Check wikipedia for details.
Basically you take a book and copy it, maybe change a few names of characters(that is your creative part) and put your name on it. Turn it into the publisher and then you make millions, until the authors family reads it and realizes you copied their Dad's book which was published 50 years before.. so the family sues you for plagiarism.

Answer 7

Basically, it boils down to stealing a written work. If you don't do it, you don't have to worry about getting caught. However, if you have a professor who is a raving lunatic as well as a gigantic ***, who, the last month of the semester, assigns the class 7 major research papers all due the last week of classes, by all means run, don't walk, to the library and copy, copy, copy.

Answer 8

To elaborate on Louis's answer, yes, it is a form of copyright infringement. When one takes another's work and sells it as his/ her own. Not unlike CD/DVD pirates that make bootleg copies and selling them. It's the same as taking money right out of the artists' pockets because the artsits don't receive the royalties they would normally get from legitimate sales of their work.

Answer 9

Larceny of intellectual property. You're stealing. And ideas are worth much more than goods.

Answer 10

Yes,it is.Plagarism is descibed as the willfull theft of written materials&claiming them as one's own.