We know it's not a good etiquette to steal or bite someone’s style blatantly or plagiarize. It’s not necessary to acknowledge the author of a work in the public domain (and sometimes that’s not even possible in cases of academic work), but it may be necessary when someone might fraudulently present themselves as the original author of a work that is not their own (plagiarism). How then should plagiarism be handled if people start presenting the work of other authors as their own?
There are softwares to detect plagiarism. However, if caught even after publication the reputation of author would certainly be at stake.
My understanding is that it is important to acknowledge the original author of a work (where possible) even if that work is in the public domain. An example: one would never claim the quote attributed to Seneca the Younger "Tanta stultitia mortalium est" (What fools these mortals be) as their own quote although it was written almost 2000 years ago, well before the idea of copyright existed. To do otherwise would be plagiarism.
Well, this is not just a problem of individuals doing wrong. Mistakes get made. Should we punish those? Also, publishers get things seriously wrong as well. In France for example, they should advertise edited books by identifying all authors and their particular contributions, but some do not do so. Instead, they give full credit to the editor as if they were a single author. This they may do if, but only if, it's difficult to separate out the different contributions. But it happens when they can be separated out. How might we punish this sloppiness?
Christopher NOCK
If the source is an edited proceedings, it should be cited. That said, there is too much emphasis on punishment. It all depends on context. What are we claiming credit for? We all recycle expressions and bits of text from things we read or heard without citing them. We must not forget that all cultural expression relies on recycling and expanding on themes that were expressed by others.
Well yes, but academic expression and recognition of its origins is much more important than many other forms. Careers (often poorly paid) rely on recognition for development. Some wrong types seem to build their (well paying) careers on slippery dishonesty, if not downright theft. Find them, punish them!
NOCK
I wrote a paper in which all sources of information were cited at the footnotes but I ran the paper using the software to check for plagiarism it indicated a high percentage of plagiarism or similarities. Now, I am worried about the issue of recognition of the source of information and plagiarism.
Secondly, in today's academic writing no knowledge is original knowledge but mere recycling or modification of others' ideas.
No Patrick. There's still plenty of original work out there! Unfortunately, too much is ignored by the powers that be who have built careers out of utter nonsense. I've seen it. It reminds me of a line from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." A young upstart scientist pinpoints the truth, and his career is destroyed. "The one thing they couldn't stand was a smartarse." Sorry, but that's the word used, I seem to remember.
NOCK
Plagiarism check will help understand this problem further, Almost every school has subscription to a software platform.
Please check the Berne Convention article 6bis: http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/
"Article 6bis Moral Rights: 1. To claim authorship; to object to certain modifications and other derogatory actions; 2. After the author's death; 3. Means of redress
(1) Independently of the author's economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation.
(2) The rights granted to the author in accordance with the preceding paragraph shall, after his death, be maintained, at least until the expiry of the economic rights, and shall be exercisable by the persons or institutions authorized by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed. However, those countries whose legislation, at the moment of their ratification of or accession to this Act, does not provide for the protection after the death of the author of all the rights set out in the preceding paragraph may provide that some of these rights may, after his death, cease to be maintained.
(3) The means of redress for safeguarding the rights granted by this Article shall be governed by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed."
It depends on your own jurisdiction, but in most of the countries these moral rights and others are protected by copyright law and are not transferable and in some jurisdictions not even possible to waive them. In some countries, most of those in the continental tradition of author's rights (for instance most of the Latin American countries, France, Belgium, Spain and so on...), these rights are perpetual. You must check your national copyright laws in order to be aware of the extent of the protection of moral rights.
In terms of creative commons, you should check the scope of the license, if confused you can always visit the creative commons website to match the license with the easy explanations they offer.
However, never forget, that as you say, using other's work is not only a bad etiquette behaviour it is also a misrepresentation.
From legal aspect, there is difference of regulation between one country to another related to recognition of copyright. There is a first to file and first to invent models.
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