Is Plagiarism legal or illegal?

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The act of stealing one’s ideas, writings, passages etc, and passing them on as their own is known as plagiarism. It also includes the factor that in such writings the origin of the material is not mentioned. Plagiarism is not usually separable from imitation or adaption, but it is understood by its dishonest intention. A person practicing this sort of activity is a plagiarist and its an illegal act. The older term plagiary was applied, to both plagiarism and plagiarist.

How plagiarism occurs?

Generally, plagiarism occurs when one steals the idea or expression, without mentioning the original source. It is not a legal term; however, it is used in lawsuits. Courts recognize it as the violation of copyrights law, as copyrights allow a person to register his creative work as the work of his own only. Lawsuits can be appropriated on plagiarism only in cases such as music, writings, and visual images.

Forms of plagiarism

Plagiarism includes a wide range of forms, the simplest of which is the stealing of material and presenting it as one’s own work; this is commonly seen in schools when an assignment is given to a student and he puts his tag to the material that he has actually copied from some source. In copyright lawsuits, allegations regarding plagiarism are usually based on partial theft. It is not necessary that duplicate another’s work, partial theft constitutes copyright infringement. Therefore plagiarism may include, using a portion of a copyrighted song, or using a partial composition and portraying to the user as if it is your own.

Plagiarism on the internet

The simplest plagiarism to be done is with the internet access nearly in every corner of the world. Nearly every topic’s information can be gained from the internet, and therefore some people find it easy to copy content from it, rather than writing a text of their own. In order to stop this widely spreading act of plagiarism, many websites are offering plagiarism checkers, which helps you identify plagiarized work.

How to use an online plagiarism tool?

Using the online plagiarism tool is really simple, as you just need to copy the material in the box given and leave the rest to the software. This software, with the help of search engines, run a scan on the material and reports you for plagiarism.
It is also important that one should understand the types of plagiarism, in order to avoid it. Minimal plagiarism occurs mostly in schools when students substituting synonyms and editing the original text. Adding more details and changing the pattern of the text amounts to substantial plagiarism.

Severe Form of Plagiarism

Complete plagiarism is the most severe form of plagiarism. Complete plagiarism occurs when one copies the content exactly, and presents it as his own work. These types should be kept in mind so that an individual’s content stays free from plagiarism.
Plagiarism can have many chances to appear in one’s text. Since this act may be done intentionally or unintentionally, it is necessary that an individual take every step so that his work can be certified free from plagiarism.