(as defined by the Britannica Encyclopedia)
the act of taking the writings [or works] of another person and passing them off as one’s own. The fraudulence is closely related to forgery and piracy—practices generally in violation of copyright laws.
Copyright Infringement:
(as defined by the New American Oxford Dictionary)
the unauthorized or prohibited use of works covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.
These days, with the open internet plagiarism is easy to do and hard to uncover. But please don't think you'll get away with it. It's a small world and with a large user data base, there's bound to be someone who has seen this picture beforehand, or knows where it comes from.
Firstly, copyright infringement. You've found a really nice picture on the internet you want to colour in, or use part of it in another picture. Anything really. If you take it from the internet, it is not yours. Most of the time, there's a copyright on it. If you want to use it, you have to buy it or receive permission from the owner. But, what is acceptable is citing a picture if you use it.
Say I use a colouring page picture. Colour it in and post it.
If I give the link I got it from, or the name of the colouring book, then I've recognized the source of the art and you aren't punishable for that.
Next, plagiarism. It's quite serious if you decide to take someone's hard work, and claim it as your own. It violates moral ethics and for example in the case of journalism, if you plagiarize and breach journalistic ethics, you are very likely risking your job permanently.
What does that mean on YWS?
On YWS, confirmed plagiarism leads to an autoban. There's no arguing it, the only deliberation that goes into this is finding out where the plagiarism is. The length depends on the severity of the plagiarized material, usually two weeks. Other times, it can be longer.
What about you, the reviewer?
You've run across something familiar, or that you know is not the person's original work. And it is not cited, or the person claims that it was their hard work. What do you do?
Please, contact a mod (anyone in green or red) with a link to the post and possibly where the picture comes from or a link.
Please be careful with your uses of other people's work.
If you have any questions, comments, post them below.
Spoiler! :
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