Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
My Thoughts on Plagiarism
I find the whole topic of plagiarism a very hard lump to swallow. It is an ethical issue, after all. I find it difficult, not because I want to be unethical, but because I know that my own learning style is highly reflective and transformative, and that I have hundreds of “inputs” into that process. How am I to know, in a practical sense, where something came from? On the other hand, I know that I have very little original thought, so whatever I say probably comes from somewhere, right? For example, I know that much of my sentiment about plagiarism derives from my feeling about the copyright of derivative artwork, and those sentiments were introduced to me by two persons: my partner (but he’s never published anything on this topic) and from an instructor who so pissed me off about some assignments I did in his class that I have forgotten his name! How am I to cite them? Having said that, I am fully prepared to cite those sources that I know have provided me with the seed thoughts, or from which I wish to quote directly.
But what happens if I cite as original a source that was plagiarizing someone else, despite due diligence on my part? In a corporate setting I could probably get away with plagiarism, simply because there is no watchdog. But in an academic environment, I am at the mercy of a teacher/facilitator and an institution that sit as judge and jury over me. What is the bar that constitutes plagiarism, and does the institution publish its criteria for judging that something is plagiarized? Is there any type of “due process” if I were accused of plagiarism? If I were to keep a journal of all the “inputs” into my learning process, I would spend more time creating the journal than living my life!
As a reader/learner, I hate getting interrupted by a citation while reading a sentence. It messes with my comprehension, my pacing, my focus, everything. Paragraphs with two or three citations are maddening. In discussing this with my partner, he commented that he just “skipped over the footnotes”. I realized that he was used to seeing CMOS (or something similar as he was educated in Europe) rather than APA. Which led me to think, why do educators use APA when it is so invasive to a learner’s reading? It seems self-defeating. Can’t there be some easier, more reader-friendly way of marking the citations so that I don’t have to re-read the text over and over?
Taking a very jaded view, which I admit is most of what I’ve written here, citation is about giving somebody credit. To be really reductionistic, I guess you could say it is all about egotism. Why am I suppose to care to about who wrote what, or presented some theory in a peer-reviewed journal? To the citizen on the street, there is little reason to care. To a learner, it should be a different story. Citation gives us a peek at the credibility of what we are reading. It gives us a chance to weed out the crackheads and nut cases, and find the gems of understanding and knowledge that we’re seeking.
A Learning Community Discusses Plagiarism
While seeking answers to the concerns I’ve outlined above, I discovered a jewel. “Kairos is a refereed open-access online journal exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy” (Kairos, 2009). Digging in the back issues, I found a review done in 1997 of the Alliance for Computers and Writing (ACW) LISTSRV discussion about plagiarism. I found the review intriguing for the breadth of the discussion, as the participants seem to contribute a variety of experiences and opinions. The part that I enjoyed the most, however, was that I could see the micro-learning community that formed around this two-day, rapid-fire discussion. The initial question, the queries, the extentions, and then the final conclusion that showed plagiarism is still an very misunderstood topic. Here’s the URL to the review: http://english.ttu.edu/KAIROS/3.1/binder.html?reviews/marsh/plagintro.html
Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement in My Context
Learners in my company’s customer care training program work in paperless offices, have either no access or strictly controlled access to the Internet (e.g., no access to web sites not approved by IT departments), and do not create anything that does not start out as a form. Additionally, since plagiarism is an ethical, not legal, issue, my company cannot dictate anti-plagiaristic behavior by the learners, or some of the T/F/Ts involved in the program because they do not work for our vendors; it fringes on a co-employment issue. Additionally, my company does not have a corporate policy regarding anti-plagiaristic behavior by T/F/Ts employees. The only corporate policy (thus far detected) regarding copyright is directed at its customers, rather than its employees.
In this context, there are two things that I can do as an instructional designer to support ethic behavior in this area:
- Cite any text that that is a direct quote using a simple format: author name, source, date. This citation will appear as a footnote on the page, not inline in the text. Citing paraphrasing or summations are not appropriate in a corporate environment; however, paraphrasing or summation should not be used as a way to avoid citation when warranted. If plagiarized text is found (as part of the ‘copyright validation’ process described below), the evaluators should inform the author, and suggest that they either provide a citation, or substantially rewrite the text.
- Ensure that the curriculum materials or programs do not infringe on copyrights, which is a legal issue, including those created by third-party instructional designers hired by my company
Ensuring Copyright Permissions
As mentioned above, the corporate legal department for my company does have a policy about customers not using its service to disseminate copyrighted materials (without proper permissions), but a policy and the supporting infrastructure for employees seems to be missing. Assuming there is none, this list outlines the steps that could create this policy and infrastructure, at least for the customer care training group.
- Meet with Legal to
- Clearly understand their perspective on how to protect W1, Inc. from copyright infringement claims, and any applicable policies currently in place
- Create a list of objects that will likely need copyright permissions.
- Create language for contracts with third-party instructional designers that outline W1, Inc.’s expectations with regards copyright and plagiarism, such as
- Items on the “list of objects” require proof of copyright permission. Include instructions on how they provide that proof to W1, Inc., or grant W1, Inc. permission to use materials that they hold the copyright on.
- Direct quotes require citation with author name, source and date
- Any materials submitted to W1, Inc. will undergo a “copyright/plagiarism validation” process prior to payment for their services.
- Develop a workshop for employees that covers these topics:
- High-level introduction to what copyright infringement is and is not in the corporate setting
- Alternatives to infringing on copyrights such as
- Using public domain materials
- Understanding the GNU Free License schema
- Using royalty-free images, or creating your own – Wikipedia’s Finding Images Tutorial appears to be an informative tutorial for images
- Understanding how to look for copyrights and use conditions on materials
- How to request copyright permissions
- Create a list of approved image repositories that are either royalty-free, or where W1, Inc. has paid a subscription.
- Develop a standard email or letter requesting copyright permission. The letter shown in Figure 11-1 of Simonson et al (2009), pg. 316, is a good template to follow.
- Develop a mechanism for tracking and logging materials that have received copyright permissions.
- Create a “copyright validation” process. Validating copyright, outside of the tracking and logging mentioned above, could be problematical. Using a plagiarism tool, such as websites as www.copyscape.com, the WayBack Machine from www.archive.org, iScan from plagiarism.uk.com or other fee-based sites, such as iThenticate.com, could highlight sections of text that are copyrighted. Confirming that either the text is cited properly, or obtained permission to use the text, will limit my company’s exposure to copyright infringement.
My company creates materials used for its customer care training program, and works with third-party instructional designers as well. Since the company is lax in permitting a “copy and paste” mentality of materials found on the Internet, the training group runs a high risk of exposing the company to copyright infringement claims, especially from its competitors. While this initiative is probably not on the Legal department’s radar of “need to fix now” issues, this could be part of a larger good business ethics program, which could be part of the showcase presented to investors.
