Plagiarism and the Internet

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Plagiarism and the Internet

Herman Melville once stated, But it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. (http://koti.mbnet.fi/neptunia/creativity/origin1.htm 5). Thousands of Americans would assert that Melville was a very wise author, and even more would attest that they too believe that cheating is wrong; why is it then that over a century after his death, our society has become even more intent on plagiarizing the works of others? Frankly, as time has gone on, it has just become incredibly easy for people to plagiarize, especially now when ideas are so easily accessible on the internet. In order to truly understand this unauthorized use of others¦Ð hard work, it is important to explore the idea of plagiarism, laws concerning plagiarism, and this new overwhelming abundance of information on the web.

Foremost, plagiary is the use of another person or organization ideas, words, or creations without giving credit where it is due. Not only is plagiarism wrong, it is also on the rise. According to a study done in the Free Press in 1996, 58 percent of high school students admitted to having let another person copy their work in 1969, while twenty years later, 98 percent let someone else copy their work (http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism_stats.html 4). There is very likely a direct correlation between this outrageous increase and the increase in the availability of information on the web. Many students may even be plagiarists without knowing it! It is extremely easy to become lazy and forget to give credit where it is due by using citations in papers. Very often, students may also feel that they cannot word what an author has already said as well as it was said in the first place; therefore, they choose to just use the original author words without quoting correctly, sometimes without giving the author any credit at all (http://www.umf.maine.edu/~library/plagiarism/what_is.html 4). Plagiarism is just as huge of a problem in schools as it is in the ¡Ýreal world.¡Ü

Not only is the act of plagiary ethically wrong; it is also considered a very serious academic crime. Everyone knows that it is wrong to steal something from another person, but oftentimes people just don seem to want to lump plagiarism in the same category with other criminal acts.

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