Copyright, Plagiarism and Fair Use
by Rodrio Franco Seoane
by Rodrio Franco Seoane
Reproducing copyrighted material without authorization and passing it off as your own without credit to the real author in social media is plagiarism, if you use someone else’s copyrighted material without permission and/or acknowledgement, you aren’t just copying content. You really are stealing.
You’re stealing their ideas and expression. It’s the expression that is protected by copyright, but the idea is an integral part of most good writing.
You’re stealing the time it took them to create that content.
You may be stealing the payment they’re entitled to expect for their work.
What is really sad – not to mention arrogant and disrespectful – is that by breaching copyright, the offender is saying that he’s entitled to copy anything he likes because other people’s time, work and creativity isn’t worth anything.
That might seem harsh when applied to a transient-seeming posting of a photograph or a scanned newspaper article on Facebook – ok, it is harsh – but the principle holds. But reproducing copyright material while acknowledging the author, while it isn’t plagiarism, is not in itself fair use: if it doesn’t meet the fair use criteria and you aren’t authorized to reproduce it, it’s probably a breach of copyright.
And adding a note saying that you don’t intend to infringe copyright doesn’t help your case if you have, in fact, infringed copyright, any more than not intending to exceed a speed limit excuses you when you are caught speeding. (Your excuse might be accepted in either case, but it doesn’t mean you haven’t done something you shouldn’t.) Nor does a note saying that you’re reproducing material for non-profit and/or educational purposes, necessarily, though if you really are, that may tip the balance towards ‘fair use’ where there is a dispute.
According to the 1976 Copyright Act in the US, ‘fair use’ can be justified on the grounds of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research, considering factors including whether it’s used for commercial or for non-profit educational purpose; the nature of the work itself; how much of the copyrighted work has been re-used and how ‘substantially’ it represents the copyrighted content ; and how the new content affects the value and marketability of the copyrighted work. (For instance, you can’t reproduce substantial portions of a work with the intention of having your work supersede it.)
You’re stealing their ideas and expression. It’s the expression that is protected by copyright, but the idea is an integral part of most good writing.
You’re stealing the time it took them to create that content.
You may be stealing the payment they’re entitled to expect for their work.
What is really sad – not to mention arrogant and disrespectful – is that by breaching copyright, the offender is saying that he’s entitled to copy anything he likes because other people’s time, work and creativity isn’t worth anything.
That might seem harsh when applied to a transient-seeming posting of a photograph or a scanned newspaper article on Facebook – ok, it is harsh – but the principle holds. But reproducing copyright material while acknowledging the author, while it isn’t plagiarism, is not in itself fair use: if it doesn’t meet the fair use criteria and you aren’t authorized to reproduce it, it’s probably a breach of copyright.
And adding a note saying that you don’t intend to infringe copyright doesn’t help your case if you have, in fact, infringed copyright, any more than not intending to exceed a speed limit excuses you when you are caught speeding. (Your excuse might be accepted in either case, but it doesn’t mean you haven’t done something you shouldn’t.) Nor does a note saying that you’re reproducing material for non-profit and/or educational purposes, necessarily, though if you really are, that may tip the balance towards ‘fair use’ where there is a dispute.
According to the 1976 Copyright Act in the US, ‘fair use’ can be justified on the grounds of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research, considering factors including whether it’s used for commercial or for non-profit educational purpose; the nature of the work itself; how much of the copyrighted work has been re-used and how ‘substantially’ it represents the copyrighted content ; and how the new content affects the value and marketability of the copyrighted work. (For instance, you can’t reproduce substantial portions of a work with the intention of having your work supersede it.)
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