Thing 10. Copyright and Plagiarism

Respecting others’ work with proper citations and respect for their copyright is one piece of Responsible Use of information and technology.

When we talk about copyright and plagiarism, we tend to lump them together with little distinction between the two. But they are different, and students will benefit from distinguishing between them. One distinction is that plagiarism is enforced by the school and copyright violations are enforced through government regulation and the courts.

Copyright is a form of intellectual property law. It protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.

In schools, it is often teachers and media specialists who face copyright questions about “fair use,” showing copyrighted movies and videos, using music, and similar issues in their teaching and distribution of materials. Students face copyright issues when they download music and videos, use pictures, maps, photos, videos, music, and more in their research and then try to “mash-up” any and all of the above without violating anyone’s copyright.

Plagiarism is the act of passing off as one's own the ideas or writings of another. It is unethical and is considered intellectual theft. Examples of plagiarism:

• Turning in another student’s work, with or without that student’s knowledge, as your own
• Buying or downloading a paper from a service and turning it in as your own work
• Copying material from a source, supplying proper documentation, but leaving out quotation marks
• Copying any portion of another’s work without proper acknowledgement
• Paraphrasing ideas and language from a source without proper documentation

Students can avoid plagiarism by always citing sources, giving credit where credit is due, and learning to paraphrase .

Teachers can help their students avoid plagiarism by creating "plagiarism-proof" assignments. These assignments may take more thought and effort on a teacher's part, but the upfront work pays off in students that produce more research and less repetition of others' ideas and less work for teachers in trying to "catch" plagiarism. Here is a great resource to help with creating those assignments.

Core

1. Take one or both of these copyright quizzes. Lots of hard questions and situations! How did you do? Reflect on your results in your blog.
2. More quizzes—on plagiarism. Is it a paraphrase or not?
3. Choose one or more of the dribbling lessons on Responsible Use of Information and use it with your classes.

Resources

• US Copyright Office--The horse's mouth--get the straight info on copyright using the FAQs and Fact Sheets.
• Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright--A Flash video from the Copyright Office that explains copyright to students and teachers.
• 10 Big Myths About Copyright ExplainedJust what it says--written in student-accessible language.
• The Copyright Website is "the ultimate copyright portal providing real world, practical (and some irrelevant) copyright information. For over twelve years, we've delivered the goods: General copyright information for educators, students, web surfers and confused citizens. Specialized information for webmasters, musicians, movie makers, screenwriters, programmers and photographers.” (This is a great resource for the “bleeding edge,” as it says, of copyright issues in especially Web, movies, and music. Interesting, current cases and examples.)
• Plagiarism and Copyright—What Are the Differences? From the National Council of Teachers of English. A group with a big interest in these topics!
• Resources on Plagiarism and Other Ethical Issues (The Council Chronicle, Nov. 05)More from National Council of Teachers of English
• Copyright and Plagiarism for Print, Video, Images, and Electronic Articles TechLearning article with many explanations and resources. Go here for brushing up and learning more.

Blog Prompts

• How do you deal with issues of plagiarism in your class?
• What resources do you use to teach these concepts?
• Any problems (students, parents, administrators....) when trying to enforce a plagiarism policy?