Copyright and plagiarism
"Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet."
Mark Twain, American author and humorist (1835-1910)
Copyright is giving the creator of an original work exclusive, legal right to it. The copyright legally protects exact expressions, however, not ideas. Thus, anyone can use another person's ideas, without copyright infringement, but not copy the exact manifestation of those ideas. Generally, a copyright is "the right to copy," but it also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to decide who may adapt the work to other forms, to decide who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights.
The 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works now has a near-global application after it was incorporated in 1995 into the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). According to the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be declared, since they are automatically in force at creation. Therefore, an author needs not apply for a copyright in countries that adhere to the Berne Convention. As soon as a work is written on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work, and to any derivative works until the author explicitly disclaims them, or until the copyright expires. However, the lack of notice of copyright may have consequences in an infringement lawsuit. Moreover, using copyright notices may reduce the likelihood of "innocent infringement" of copyright.
Copyright does not prohibit all copying or reproduction. The fair use doctrine, (under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 in the US), permits some copying and distribution without permission of the copyright holder or payment to same. Fair use relates to teaching, scholarship, research, and study; review, comment and critique; news reportage, and the giving of professional advice. The statute does not clearly define fair use, but instead gives four non-exclusive factors to consider in a fair use analysis. Those factors are:
1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, a similar notion of fair dealing was established through legislation. The concept is sometimes not well defined; however, in Canada, private copying for personal use has been expressly permitted by statute since 1999. In Australia, the fair dealing exceptions under the Copyright Act 1968 are a limited set of circumstances under which copyrighted material can be legally copied or adapted without the copyright holder's consent.
Copyright versus plagiarism:
While copyright is a legal matter, plagiarism relates to professional ethics. Plagiarism takes place when a person uses another person's words, ideas, images, etc. without acknowledgment. Hence, citing sources generally prevents accusations of plagiarism. However, reference is an insufficient defense against copyright violations. For example, reprinting a copyrighted book without permission, while citing the original author, would be copyright infringement but not plagiarism.
The rules on this website are as follows:
Any person who would like to contribute a subject paper to the Intsangano educational website, automatically, when sending the contribution, permits the Intsangano website to upload the paper, free of charge for all readers to share. However, the author automatically retains the copyright of the paper. In order to make this public, he or she can mention it at the bottom of the pages, (Copyright © Year Name. All Rights Reserved) but it is not necessary to state. Copyrights are automatically given to any author of original work. Nevertheless, it still means that other people are allowed to make fair use of the contribution. Please note that in this website the fair use is perceived as follows:
People who want to use ideas from the Intsangano educational website are welcome; however, it is expected that they refer to the Intsangano website. If they use ideas from any of the articles uploaded, they need to refer to the author as well. Since the intention is to spread the information in the Intsangano website as far and wide as possible, all material here is available for non-profit, non-commercial, educational, and informational purposes. Yet nobody can directly copy, download, or print any of the material presented here for the purpose of personal gain, group benefit, income or profit-making, unless it falls within the legal fair use.
Since the author of the uploaded educational papers holds the copyright, he or she can at any time request that his or her contribution be removed from the Intsangano website. If any contributor wishes to have his or her contribution removed, please send a message to the website administrator. It will be done as soon as possible.
Copyright of linked papers is easy to deal with since Intsangano merely links and does not upload any paper. Hence, there is no copyright infringement possible. However, out of decency and as far as practical possible the Intsangano Administrator will send a message and inform the original website owner that Intsangano educational website is linking to a paper. If the website owner disagrees to this, the link will be cancelled.
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You are on the page Copyrights and plagiarism, under the menu headline About Intsangano.
"Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet."
Mark Twain, American author and humorist (1835-1910)
Copyright is giving the creator of an original work exclusive, legal right to it. The copyright legally protects exact expressions, however, not ideas. Thus, anyone can use another person's ideas, without copyright infringement, but not copy the exact manifestation of those ideas. Generally, a copyright is "the right to copy," but it also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to decide who may adapt the work to other forms, to decide who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights.
The 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works now has a near-global application after it was incorporated in 1995 into the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). According to the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be declared, since they are automatically in force at creation. Therefore, an author needs not apply for a copyright in countries that adhere to the Berne Convention. As soon as a work is written on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work, and to any derivative works until the author explicitly disclaims them, or until the copyright expires. However, the lack of notice of copyright may have consequences in an infringement lawsuit. Moreover, using copyright notices may reduce the likelihood of "innocent infringement" of copyright.
Copyright does not prohibit all copying or reproduction. The fair use doctrine, (under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 in the US), permits some copying and distribution without permission of the copyright holder or payment to same. Fair use relates to teaching, scholarship, research, and study; review, comment and critique; news reportage, and the giving of professional advice. The statute does not clearly define fair use, but instead gives four non-exclusive factors to consider in a fair use analysis. Those factors are:
1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, a similar notion of fair dealing was established through legislation. The concept is sometimes not well defined; however, in Canada, private copying for personal use has been expressly permitted by statute since 1999. In Australia, the fair dealing exceptions under the Copyright Act 1968 are a limited set of circumstances under which copyrighted material can be legally copied or adapted without the copyright holder's consent.
Copyright versus plagiarism:
While copyright is a legal matter, plagiarism relates to professional ethics. Plagiarism takes place when a person uses another person's words, ideas, images, etc. without acknowledgment. Hence, citing sources generally prevents accusations of plagiarism. However, reference is an insufficient defense against copyright violations. For example, reprinting a copyrighted book without permission, while citing the original author, would be copyright infringement but not plagiarism.
The rules on this website are as follows:
Any person who would like to contribute a subject paper to the Intsangano educational website, automatically, when sending the contribution, permits the Intsangano website to upload the paper, free of charge for all readers to share. However, the author automatically retains the copyright of the paper. In order to make this public, he or she can mention it at the bottom of the pages, (Copyright © Year Name. All Rights Reserved) but it is not necessary to state. Copyrights are automatically given to any author of original work. Nevertheless, it still means that other people are allowed to make fair use of the contribution. Please note that in this website the fair use is perceived as follows:
People who want to use ideas from the Intsangano educational website are welcome; however, it is expected that they refer to the Intsangano website. If they use ideas from any of the articles uploaded, they need to refer to the author as well. Since the intention is to spread the information in the Intsangano website as far and wide as possible, all material here is available for non-profit, non-commercial, educational, and informational purposes. Yet nobody can directly copy, download, or print any of the material presented here for the purpose of personal gain, group benefit, income or profit-making, unless it falls within the legal fair use.
Since the author of the uploaded educational papers holds the copyright, he or she can at any time request that his or her contribution be removed from the Intsangano website. If any contributor wishes to have his or her contribution removed, please send a message to the website administrator. It will be done as soon as possible.
Copyright of linked papers is easy to deal with since Intsangano merely links and does not upload any paper. Hence, there is no copyright infringement possible. However, out of decency and as far as practical possible the Intsangano Administrator will send a message and inform the original website owner that Intsangano educational website is linking to a paper. If the website owner disagrees to this, the link will be cancelled.
Consecutive reading: go to Comments.
You are on the page Copyrights and plagiarism, under the menu headline About Intsangano.
