This article is written by KIRTI SHARMA, CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY, FINAL YEAR, BBA LLB. Student during an internship at LeDroit India.
CONCEPT:
WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?
Copyright is form of intellectual property protection granted under Indian law to the creators of original works of authorship such as literary works (including computer programs, table and compilations including computer database which may be expressed in words, codes, schemes or in any other form, including a machine readable medium) dramatic, musical, artistic works, cinematographic films and sound recordings.
Copyright law protects expressions of ideas rather than the ideas themselves. Under section 13 of the copyright act 1957, copyright protection is conferred on literary works, dramatic works, musical works, artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recording.
For example: books, computer programs are protected under the act as literary works.
Copyright infringement involves the unauthorized copying of copyrightable material i.e., original expression, not facts. Copyright law does not require that the infringer attempt to pass the material off as his own in fact, in cases of blatant piracy the infringer often hopes to pass the material off as that of another, i.e., the true author as do those engaged in forgery. Copyright vests automatically in works of authorship from the moment they are fixed in any tangible medium of expression, giving the author (and his heirs) the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt is tribute, perform, and display the work for their life plus 70 years following the death of the author. The U.S. copyright statute pre-empts any attempt by the states to regulate in this area, and all copyright disputes are handled by federal courts.
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
Plagiarism is a universal phenomenon and its scope not only includes the biomedical writing but also other fields of literature, drama, artistic work computer programming movies etc. it is not a legal term, and various authority define it differently. Plagiarism is derived from the Latin word “plagiairus” which means “kidnapper”; cognate with the Greek adjectives “plagios” that means “crooked” or “treacherous. Ben Jonson has been created by the Oxford Dictionary as being first to use this word in print. Additionally the first English copyright law was passed in 1709.
The Oxford University website defines plagiarism as presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgment.
Plagiarism is a frequent and severe form of research misconduct that is often a result of lack of time lack of energy to do work by yourself and poor research skill, poor mentorship (because the researcher think that the mentor will neither nor care), poor citation skill, lack of understanding of the English language or, gaining tenure, or increasing professional stature.
Plagiarism and copyright infringement both involve the appropriation of another’s intellectual effort, but they are different concepts in many respects. To return to our overarching topic of academic honesty, and the specific problem of academic plagiarism, it might be useful to tease out the differences between these concepts before positing a few simple suggestions for mitigating academic plagiarism.
TYPES OF COPYRIGHT:
There are two types of rights under copyright:
- economic rights, which allow the rights owner to derive financial reward from the use of their works by others; and
- moral rights, which protect the non-economic interests of the author.
Most copyright laws state that the rights owner has the economic right to authorize or prevent certain uses in relation to a work or, in some cases, to receive remuneration for the use of their work (such as through COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT). The economic rights owner of a work can prohibit or authorize:
- its reproduction in various forms, such as printed publication or sound recording;
- its public performance, such as in a play or musical work;
- its recording, for example, in the form of compact discs or DVDs;
- its broadcasting, by radio, cable or satellite;
- its translation into other languages; and
- its adaptation, such as a novel into a film screenplay.
Examples of widely recognized moral rights include the right to claim authorship of a work and the right to oppose changes to a work that could harm the creator’s reputation
TYPES OF PLAGIARISM:
There are different types of acts related to plagiarism:
- Complete /Global plagiarism
- Paraphrasing plagiarism
- Verbatim (Copy and Paste) Plagiarism
- Mosaic/ patchwork Plagiarism
- Self-Plagiarism
- Accidental Plagiarism Complete/ Global plagiarism means that copying entire work and representing that as your own work.
This is very serious type of plagiarism. For example, if we down loaded any articles which is already published in any journal and are converted into the word and changing the word here and there and if we are going for publication then it definitely come within the preview of complete/Global plagiarism. You might be blacklisted for those particular journals. Paraphrasing plagiarism means rephrasing a piece of text, sentence, and paragraph in your own words. For example, if you are copying. If you change the sequence of paragraph and representing its own words. This type of plagiarism is not easily caught Verbatim (Copy and Paste) Plagiarism means when we as it copies and paste someone text and represent that text as your own
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COPYRIGHT AND PLAGIARISM:
| Aspect | Copyright | Plagiarism |
| Legal protection for original works of authorship | Ethical violation of presenting others’ work as your own | |
| Legal Implications | Violating copyright laws can lead to legal consequences | While plagiarism itself is not always illegal, it can lead to consequences if copyright infringement is involved |
| Source Attribution | Copyright protects the author’s rights, and usage requires permission or licensing | Plagiarism involves failure to acknowledge the original author’s work |
| Scope | Applies to original works like literature, music, art, etc. | Applies to any form of intellectual work (writing, ideas, research, etc.) |
| Duration | Typically lasts the lifetime of the author plus 70 years | Plagiarism is an unethical action, not a time-bound issue |
| Protection Offered | Exclusive rights to use, distribute, and reproduce work | No legal protection; focuses on the integrity of the creator’s work |
COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN COPYRIGHT AND PLAGIARISM:
Copyright infringement and plagiarism can be related concepts but are distinctly different situations.
Plagiarism is when someone passes off the work of another person as one’s own or without acknowledgement of the original source. Plagiarism is avoidable by making sure you always give credit to the original source when using the ideas or works of someone else in your own work. The LibGuide ACADEMIC RESEARCH: AVOIDING REASEARCH AND UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH ETHICS povides an in depth explanation of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Plagiarism is a moral and ethical matter.
Copyright, on the other hand, does not protect ideas. It only protects the expression of those ideas. A person potentially infringes on copyright when they; copy, distribute, display, perform, or create a derivative work, without the permission of the copyright holder. Copyright infringement is a legal matter.
As illustrated below it is possible to be both a plagiarist and a copyright infringer or only a plagiarist or a copyright infringer.
Scenario 1 (plagiarism without copyright violation):
If you copy The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot and put your own name on it and turn it in for your poetry composition course, you would be guilty of plagiarism. Since The Waste Land is in the public domain, it is no longer protected by copyright. You are free to make copies, to distribute them, and to preform and display the poem. You can even adapt the poem into a new work. However, by passing the work off as your own, you have plagiarized T.S. Elliot.
Scenario 2 (copyright violation but not plagiarism):
You are an artist and you create a sculpture that reproduces a famous photograph. You intend to sell your sculpture for thousands of dollars. You give credit to the photographer but have not requested their permission or paid any royalties for reuse. Since you have credited the original source you are not committing plagiarism. However, since you are copying and creating a derivative work without the copyright owner’s permission, you are infringing on their copyright.
Scenario 3 (both copyright violation and plagiarism):
You copy the lyrics of a song, say for example “The Sign” by Ace of Base, to your Web site and claim those lyrics as your own work. Because “The Sign” is still in copyright, you have violated the copyright on the work and you have also plagiarized the songwriter by claiming the material as your own.
DOCTRINE OF FAIR DEALING FOR RESEARCH:
Study and Instruction Section 52 of the Act confers certain rights on the content users including researchers to access material. While Section 14 of the Copyright Act enlists the exclusive economic rights of the copyright owners; Section 52(1) running from sub clause (a) to (zc) provides for several exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright owners. While exercising the fair dealing rights under Section 52, the users still have to respect the copyrighted work and safeguard them from the perils of copyright infringement. They are allowed to use only a substantial portion.
The fair dealing of the work means fair use. The copyright law of UK uses the term fair deal where the USA copyright law adopts fair use. Indian copyright statute uses the term ‘fair dealing’ following the UK model. The TRIPS Agreement9 also provides for fair dealing as limitations and exceptions.
Article 13 of the TRIPS Agreement states that members shall confine limitations or exceptions to exclusive rights to certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder. The fair dealing doctrine is essential for research and academic purpose, private study and for dissemination of knowledge.
The term, fair dealing is nowhere defined in the India Copyright Act; hence, determination of the scope of fair dealing is to be done in a case-to-case basis, which is always a difficult task for the judiciary. The judiciary in India and abroad has developed some tests and doctrines to determine whether a particular dispute is a case of infringement or an instance of fair dealing, research, criticism or review, whether of that work or of any other work, such a dealing does not constitute an infringement of copyright.
WE CAN REFER TO THIS CASE, The Canadian Supreme Court while answering the question, whether distributing extracts to students involves a permissible purpose, applied permissible purpose test and the court ruled in Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency that copying material for teaching in classrooms by teachers on their own initiative would pass the permissible purpose test.
The Supreme Court had examined whether the copying was ‘fair’ based upon the fairness factors set out by the Supreme Court of Canada in earlier decision in CCH Canadian Ltd v. Law Society of Upper Canada. The test for such fair dealing, as articulated in CCH, involves two steps: whether the dealing is for permissible purpose from the perspective of the user of the copied materials like research or private study and whether the dealing is fair considering the fairness factors set out in the CCH decision. The six factors, as per CCH case, for the determination of fairness are: (i) the purpose of the dealing, (ii) the character of the dealing, (iii) the amount of the dealing, (iv) alternatives to the dealing, (v) the nature of the work and (vi) the effect of the dealing on the work.
CONCLUSION:
Unfortunately, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of copyright in academic institutions. Some students are unaware that using the works of others without proper recognition is offensive, although Batane draws attention to the fact that student plagiarism manifests itself in various forms, including forgery and theft in the ideas and work of others.
Some students still believe that using copyrighted material may or may not require permission from the author or copyright holder at any time. By following this critically, one can therefore hypothetically attribute the cause of plagiarism in academic institutions to the ignorance of copyright among students.
Since India’s university is one of the largest users of copyrighted material, it would not be wrong to assume that the university community uses the entertainment and work of others among the students on a daily basis. It would not be wrong to investigate the role of the university in this regard, by promoting knowledge and disseminating knowledge and knowledge-based products.
The university has a central library block resourced with various copyrighted materials including the large collection of internal and pre-subscribed books, articles, journals, textbooks, essays, encyclopedias, dictionaries, letters, reports, memoranda and other published materials which are available to students of the University Community for the production of term papers, essays, report, thesis or dissertation, articles, journals and other scholarly publications. This calls for prudent and cogent Copyright Policy Document (CPD), providing guidelines on the use of copyrighted materials, to enable the University to effectively regulate, monitor and protect its intellectual property, academic and institutional values and defend its teaching, research and service mission through effective policy and awareness drive.
