Plagiarism and

Copyright in Technology

As Part Of Digital Responsibility

What is Plagiarism?

The act of using another person’s words or ideas as if they were your own, without giving credit to that person

‘plagiarism.’ Mirriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2001. Web. 8 March 2015

DilemmaA college student faces a next day deadline for their Science paper on Quantum Chemistry. They procrastinated on their reading, have a Statistics and Physics mid-term the next day, and have to work the night shift at a gas station that evening. Like a good student (and questionable employee), they research online while at work for ideas to supplement their own thoughts for ideas on a paper and the student uses these ideas as their own.

Dilemma

The student submits the paper while giving some credit as ‘Works Cited,’ but not all sources are given credit. The student receives a message from their teacher that they have a meeting with the Dean and Ethics Board of the University/College and will find that they are to be expelled effective immediately.

Is this a realistic situation?

Things to Remember When Submitting Academic Work

• Give recognition to the author for phrases, sentences, thoughts, code, software or digital sources which can also take the form of incomplete footnotes, or endnotes• Reference appropriately when quoting indirectly, to indicate the

source of the ideas and work of another• DO NOT submit the same work for evaluation to more than one

course without the consent of each instructor to do so• DO NOT submit identical work of another student for evaluation when

the work was intended to be completed individually

Giving Credit to Others• The two most common ways to cite

your sources are in MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association) format. The style used will depend on the course requirements.• A ‘Works Cited’ page acts as a

bibliography, containing greater detail of the source material used in your paper

What should the citations in a paper look

like?

What does a ‘Works Cited’ page typically

look like?

- The format of this page is dependant on the style (ie. APA, MLA) used

- Free webpages such as citationmachine.net will assist you with the formatting based on the style, or if the information was retrieved from a book, magazine, newspaper, website, journal, blogs, or other source

- Desktop applications such as EndNote can assist in organizing your sources. They can also quickly change the format from APA to MLA

Plagiarism happens everywhere, even in Canada!

March 18, 2003

“It is inherently dangerous to allow a country, such as Iraq, to retain weapons of mass destruction, particularly in light of its past aggressive behaviour. If the world community fails to disarm Iraq we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can have these most deadly of weapons to systematically defy international resolutions and that the world will do nothing to stop them.”

John Howard

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard (Held Office March 11, 1996 – December 3, 2007)

March 20, 2003

“It is inherently dangerous to allow a country, such as Iraq, to retain weapons of mass destruction, particularly in light of its past aggressive behaviour. If the world community fails to disarm Iraq we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can have these most deadly of weapons to systematically defy international resolutions and that the world will do nothing to stop them.”

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper(Holds Office February 6, 2006 – Current)

Stephen Harper

An Unfortunate Incident…

Owen Lippert, the staffer who wrote the speech for Harper resigned stating; “Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader’s speech. Neither my superiors in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition nor the leader of the Opposition was aware that I had done so.” Ph. D in Modern European History from the

University of Notre Dame - Owen Lippert, 2003

The Speech Continued

Australian Prime Minister - John Howard Leader of the Opposition - Stephen Harper

“As the possession of weapons of mass destruction spreads, so the danger of such weapons coming into the hands of terrorist groups will multiply. That is the ultimate nightmare which the world must take decisive and effective steps to prevent. Possession of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by terrorists would constitute a direct, undeniable and lethal threat to Australia and its people.”

“As the possession of weapons of mass destruction spreads, the danger of such weapons coming into the hands of terrorist groups will multiply, particularly given in this case the shameless association of Iraq with rogue non-state organizations. That is the ultimate nightmare which the world must take decisive and effective steps to prevent. Possession of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by terrorists would constitute a direct, undeniable and lethal threat to the world, including to Canada and its people.”

Let’s compare

The Tough Questions…• Did the staffer, Owen Lippert, do the ‘right

thing’ by resigning from his position? Why/Why Not?• In an academic setting, would Stephen

Harper be guilty of plagiarism?• Were the plagiarised comments harmful

to the general public?

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time, with the intention of enabling the creator (ex. the photographer of a photograph or the author of a book) to receive compensation for their intellectual effort.

What is Fair Use?

Fair Use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. It permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holder

Direct Link

RECENT NEWS: Robin Thicke & Pharrell Williams vs the family of Marvin Gaye

In 2013, Thicke and Williams were sued for their Grammy nominated hit “Blurred Lines” The Gaye family claimed it infringedon Marvin’s 1977 hit, “Got To GiveIt Up,” and were seeking damages in excess of $25 million

What do we think?

Direct Link

RECENT NEWS: Robin Thicke & Pharrell Williams vs the family of Marvin Gaye

• A jury ruled in favour of the family for the tune of $7.3 million for copyright infringement• ‘Blurred Lines,’ has earned nearly

$16.5 million in profits according to court documents• After the verdict, Nona Gaye said,

“Right now, I feel free. Free from Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.” Marvin Gaye, 1978

Many other songs also share similarities…

Direct Link

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that promotes and enables the sharing of knowledge and creativity. The organization produces and maintains a free suite of licensing tools to allow anyone to easily share, reuse, and remix materials with a fair ‘some rights reserved’ approach to copyright.

The goal is to maximize digital creativity, sharing, and innovation, realizing the full potential of the Internet through universal access to research, education, and full participation in culture.

Creative Commons

Direct Link

Canada’s Copyright Modernization Act

• Act where all provisions went in to effect January 2nd, 2015. • Expands the scope of ‘fair use’ for

education, satire, and parody• Requires educational institutions to

ensure that copyrighted course materials are destroyed 30 days after the end of said course• Requires libraries to place a 5 day time

limit on material borrowed electronically

• Internet Service Providers and website hosts are now required by law to relay copyright infringement notices to their customers. They serve as a warning from the copyright holder that illegal activity has occurred from your IP address and legal action could potentially follow.

• The law introduces limitations on the amount of money a copyright holder can potentially sue for; between $100 - $5,000 for personal use, and between $500 - $20,000 for commercial use.

• Based on the act, digital media such as music, movies, video games, e-books, and computer applications are all subject to notices and fines for copyright infringement. There are penalties for your actions online!

Canada’s Copyright Modernization Act

The Tough Questions…What do YOU think is fair penalty for someone who illegally downloads a movie? A video game? A song?Do you think there should be a distinction between the type of digital media being infringed upon, or should all infringement compensation be the same?Is online piracy equivalent to shoplifting?

A Television show?

Why do people pirate?

Remember…Plagiarism is committed when you do not acknowledge using someone else’s:- Word or phrases- Ideas or thoughts- Term paper- Recording- Images- Computer code- Experiment results- Lecture content- Falsified data, citations or other text- OR your own previously submitted work.

Remember…

For Copyright issues, be sure to• Check who owns it• Give credit to the creator• Get permission to use it• Give credit to the creator• Buy it (if necessary)• Use it responsibly

Open Discussion

Questions?Comments? Concerns?

Works Cited“Avoiding Plagiarism: Modified APA style of referencing…” McGowan, Hanson, Mirka. (2011) http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b806/library/Plagiarism.ppt

“Plagiarism,” Dummer, Emeritus. (2010) http://grad.msu.edu/resources/docs/plagaug2010.ppt

“Harper Staffer quits over plagiarized 2003 speech on Iraq,” CBC News. (2003) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/harper-staffer-quits-over-plagiarized-2003-speech-on-iraq-1.756590

“Copyright and Fair Use,” Common Sense Education via YouTube. (2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suMza6Q8J08

“‘Blurred Lines’ Jury Orders Pharell, Robin Thicke to Pay $7.3 Million to Marvin Gaye Family.” Variety. Alex Stedman. (2015) http://variety.com/2015/music/news/blurred-lines-verdict-pharrell-robin-thicke-ordered-to-pay-7-3-million-to-marvin-gaye-family-1201450117/

“Robin Thicke: I was too drunk and high to write ‘Blurred Lines,’” Photo via Getty Images. Pagesix (2014) http://pagesix.com/2014/09/15/robin-thicke-i-was-too-drunk-and-high-to-write-blurred-lines/

“Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines vs Marvin Gaye – Got to Give it Up,” Josh Chesterfield via YouTube. (2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziz9HW2ZmmY

“Mind-Blowing SIX Song Country Mashup!” Sir Mashalot via YouTube. (2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o

“Copyright Modernization Act,” Wikipedia. et al (2015) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Modernization_Act

“Share in Creativity.” Creative Commons. (2015) http://creativecommons.org/about

“Wanna Work Together.” Creative Commons via YouTube. (2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0VzUigrb_g

“Plagiarism and Cheating,” University Secretariat - Dalhousie University. (2015) http://uwinnipeg.ca/academics/calendar/docs/regulationsandpolicies.pdf