# A problem of plagiarism. Not only of content but also of photographs.



## photocopy101 (Aug 8, 2014)

*A problem of plagiarism. Not only of content but also of photographs.*
​
Plagiarism is a serious problem of modern times, especially with the commonness of the Internet, when everyone has an unlimited access to the information in the media. Plagiarism is easier than ever before,because everything can be found online, saved on a private computer or shared with other people. What is even more outrageous is that nowadays plagiarism concerns not only content but also photographs, images and graphics. The fact that people steal photos from the Internet is hurtful for the authors, who put a lot of effort into taking pictures.

    Plagiarising other people's work has always been considered a lie, trickery and a crime. The concept of _plagiarism _has entered English language in 17th century, thanks to an English dramatist Ben Jonson, who was first to describe someone guilty of a literary theft as a _plagiary_.1 Online plagiarism is as serious as stealing content from books! By way of consolation, it is worth mentioning that plagiarism is being punished more often. People react to stealing their intellectual property and frequently win the cases in court. Copyright infringement is a legitimate accusation and now it doesn't matter whether it happened online or offline. 

    When it comes to an online plagiarism, it may concern various forms, for example websites, blogs or others. Copied content from your website may do harm to your page. As a result of the content duplication, your website may not be shown in the web search results for example in Google. It's nothing pleasant to publish something online, just to find another website having word for word the same content. Blogs are also put at great risk of plagiarism, as they usually present a unique content. Apart from stealing content, blogs are also in great danger of plagiarizing photographs, which are usually the author's property.

   Plagiarism of photographs usually takes place when someone is looking for an image in Google and he/she does not think that it requires the author's consent to use the photo somewhere else. Plagiarism of photos, just as any other kind of plagiarism, is unethical and aims at people who work hard to earn an honest penny on their hobby. To understand why stealing photos is such a big deal, one would have to become absorbed by it and find out what it takes to be a decent photographer. First of all, it usually takes years to master this hobby, one has to start with nothing and gradually acquire skills. One of the first goal for every amateur photographer is to get a professional camera, which of course is extremely expensive, the cost of a top-end camera and a set of different lenses may even exceed the price of a car! Once you realize how much work and money it takes to be a (professional) photographer, you start to respect them and value their work more.

   The incessant problem of plagiarism is a burden for our society. The statistics 2 concerning the plagiarism level onthe Internet estimate that the number of Internet content will raiseby 1250% by the end of 2016. Such a broad Internet contentfacilitates online plagiarism. The fact is, already 63% of theexisting content is plagiarised and it will be even more if nothing changes. The same content continues to be used online by a great number of people over and over again, which means that almost nothing new is being published, and users still share the same content. Thus, it is crucial to create new content and not copy already existing texts or photographs.

References:
1 Online Etymology Dictionary
2 graphs.net/plagiarism-level-on-internet.html


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## astroNikon (Aug 8, 2014)

Did you copy this from some book or online place ?


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## photocopy101 (Aug 8, 2014)

Do you really think I would copy an article about plagiarism?


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## astroNikon (Aug 8, 2014)

photocopy101 said:


> Do you really think I would copy an article about plagiarism?


Well, you know you.
We have no idea who you are as this is your first post.
Thus, I think it's a valid question.


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## gsgary (Aug 8, 2014)

photocopy101 said:


> Do you really think I would copy an article about plagiarism?



Probably


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## photocopy101 (Aug 8, 2014)

I didn't copy it. I wrote it myself, and since this is a place for posting articles I thought it's ok. Please correct me if I'm wrong.


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## astroNikon (Aug 8, 2014)

photocopy101 said:


> I didn't copy it. I wrote it myself, and since this is a place for posting articles I thought it's ok. Please correct me if I'm wrong.


Correct place.

Thank you for posting it

You may want to provide a list of Citations of where you obtained your information, as is norm for research material. Otherwise, you know, someone may think you plagarized it even if it could be your own website.

APA Style Blog: How to Cite Something You Found on a Website in APA Style
or
APA REFERENCE STYLE: Internet Documents


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## Arthur53 (Aug 8, 2014)

Could just be my strange sense of humor but an article on plagiarism by "photocopy" amuses me. However I agree with most of what was said.


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## astroNikon (Aug 8, 2014)

Arthur53 said:


> Could just be my strange sense of humor but an article on plagiarism by "photocopy" amuses me. However I agree with most of what was said.


Yeah. that's what caught my initial attention too.


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## manaheim (Aug 8, 2014)

Copying an article about plagiarism would be seriously awesome, and I think that would also fit the actual use of the term ironic.


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## photocopy101 (Aug 8, 2014)

astroNikon said:


> photocopy101 said:
> 
> 
> > I didn't copy it. I wrote it myself, and since this is a place for posting articles I thought it's ok. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
> ...



Thanks, I've changed links into footnotes. 

Btw I guess it's my strange sense of humor to choose a nickname like this


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## astroNikon (Aug 8, 2014)

:thumbup:


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## The_Traveler (Aug 8, 2014)

Ignoring the typos, this is all true but not very interesting and not at all insightful. 
It is a cobbled together selection of possible 'facts' and vague allegations, only acceptable because they can't be proven right or wrong, without any documentation.



> Online  plagiarism is as serious as stealing content from books!
> 
> By way of  consolation, it is worth mentioning that plagiarism is being punished  more often.
> 
> ...





A potentially much more interesting and less hackneyed topic that might be amenable to actual thought is the subject of self-plagiarism, using sentences and paragraphs that one has written before.
Is this as bad as overt plagiarism?


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## KmH (Aug 8, 2014)

An easy way to check to see if some text has been plagarized: Copy the first line of the text and Google it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Pla...i57.1464j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8


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## hamlet (Aug 8, 2014)

The internet is too huge to be controlled. The only way to make sure people don't take your work is to only post the pictures you can afford to lose.


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## astroNikon (Aug 8, 2014)

KmH said:


> An easy way to check to see if some text has been plagarized: Copy the first line of the text and Google it.
> 
> https://www.google.com/search?q=Plagiarism+is+a+serious+problem+of+modern+times%2C+especially+with+the+commonness+of+the+Internet%2C+when+everyone+has+an+unlimited+access+to+the+information+in+the+media.&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS553US553&oq=Plagiarism+is+a+serious+problem+of+modern+times%2C+especially+with+the+commonness+of+the+Internet%2C+when+everyone+has+an+unlimited+access+to+the+information+in+the+media.&aqs=chrome..69i57.1464j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8



Many people when they plagerize often reword text.  But as the article goes on they do less and less of it.  So I normally check later lines of text and search for it.


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## snowbear (Aug 8, 2014)

The first time something is written, it's originality.
The second time it's written, it's plagiarism.
The third time, it's research.
The fourth time, it's folklore.


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## astroNikon (Aug 8, 2014)

snowbear said:


> The first time something is written, it's originality.
> The second time it's written, it's plagiarism.
> The third time, it's research.
> The fourth time, it's folklore.



I prefer my rendition of it 

The first time something is written, it's originality.
The second time it's written, it's plagiarism.
The third time, it's research.
The fourth time, it's folklore

:mrgreen:


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## Derrel (Aug 8, 2014)

manaheim said:


> Copying an article about plagiarism would be seriously awesome, and I think that would also fit the actual use of the term ironic.



Indeed, that would be ironic. Just for amusement, we could read this article and at the same exact time, we could listen to Alanis Morrisette's song "Ironic" and get all bummed out and stuff. It'd be an awesome pity party kind of mood. Speaking of plagiarism, we just had a United States candidate for political office step down from a high-level political campaign because of revelations that he had plagiarized when he was a student writing a research paper at one of the US military academies.


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2014)

here's a good example of our own TPF members ---> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-my-pictures-text-tpf-thread-posted-blog.html


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