Exercise 3: Copyright and Plagiarisms

Objectives

Describe copyright restrictions and the fair use doctrine. Identify the difference between copyright violations and plagiarisms. Identify methods for adhering to copyright law when writing a research paper.

Activity

Copyright and plagiarisms

a. View the video Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright located at http://www.loc.gov/teachers/copyrightmystery/#/copyright

b. Explore the following two links:

https://copyright.psu.edu/copyright-basics/copyright-resources/#Copyright_Basics

https://www.copyright.gov

c. After exploring the above two sites, complete the following three tutorials:

https://www.copyright.com/learn/media-download/copyright-basics

https://copyright.byu.edu/content/copyright-tutorial

http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/learningmodules/plagiarism

d. Now, evaluate the following four scenarios to determine if there is a copyright violation and/or plagiarisms. If there is plagiarisms or a violation, how should it be handled? Remember that although any one activity may represent both plagiarisms and a copyright violation, plagiarism and copyright violation are different issues.

• A student is writing a term paper and asks another student to review the paper. The second student makes several revisions from correcting spelling to rewriting sentences. The second student does not add any new citations. In a couple of places, she does add examples that clarify some of the concepts included in the original version of the paper. The second student is not paid for the review but does offer to review future papers for pay.
• Three students are reading a newly published article written by one of their previous professors. They are surprised and pleased to discover that the professor has acknowledged them at the beginning of the article. The acknowledgment simply states that their insights have been helpful in writing the article. However, in reading the article, each student has discovered a short section (two to three paragraphs) that is almost a direct quote from a term paper previously submitted to the professor.
• As a class assignment, a student is writing a manual that includes a list of terms with definitions. The student searches the Internet for these terms and uses definitions from a combination of sites when creating each definition.
• A student is writing a paper about maternal death rates in different countries. As part of the paper, the student includes a figure titled "Trends in pregnancy-related mortality in the United States: 1987-2015" from the following site: https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pregnancy-mortality-surveillance-system.htm. The website for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is included in the references. The figure does not include a citation.

Based on your review of the websites and the analysis of the scenarios, answer the following questions:

What is a copyright? What is fair use? What is the public domain? What are the guidelines for including information in a term paper in order to be in compliance with the copyright law? What is the difference between copyright violation and plagiarisms?

1. Respond and post your answers to all of the questions in d, evaluate the four scenarios to determine if there is a copyright violation or plagiarism. Follow all of the directions.

• A student is writing a term paper......
• three students are reading a newly published.....
• As a class assignment, a student.....
• iv. A student is writing a paper about.....

2. Based on your review of the websites and the analysis of the scenarios, answer the following questions:

a. What is a copyright?

b. What is fair use?

c. What is the public domain?

d. What are the guidelines for including information in classwork to comply with the copyright law?

e. What is the difference between copyright violation and plagiarism?

3. Summarize what you learned by completing this assignment.