Plagiarism is the representation of another person’s language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one’s own original work. Although precise definitions vary depending on the institution, in many countries and cultures plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity and journalistic ethics, as well as of social norms around learning, teaching, research, fairness, respect, and responsibility. As such, a person or entity that is determined to have committed plagiarism is often subject to various punishments or sanctions, such as suspension, expulsion from school or work, fines, imprisonment and other penalties.
Not all cultures and countries hold the same beliefs about personal ownership of language or ideas, and plagiarism is typically not in itself a crime. However, like counterfeiting, fraud can be punished in a court for prejudices caused by copyright infringement violation of moral rights or torts. In academia and in industry, it is a serious ethical offense. Plagiarism and copyright infringement functionally overlap, depending on the copyright law protection in force, but they are not equivalent concepts, and although many types of plagiarism may not meet the legal requirements in copyright law as adjudicated by courts, they still constitute the passing-off of another’s work as one’s own, and thus plagiarism – Credit and Reproduced from Wikipedia.
I came across yet another published article recently, one that felt eerily familiar. Not because it echoed a shared thought, but because it was blatantly “lifted”. Word for word. Idea for idea. No credit. What a crying shame. Just quiet theft, dressed up as an original representation.
It is both infuriating and disheartening to see one’s thoughts, words and effort lifted without so much as a mention of the original author. What makes it worse is when this “intellectual theft” finds its way into the pages of a newspaper, which is meant to uphold truth, credibility and integrity.
We often hear the comforting line “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. But let us be honest. That is not imitation. This is plagiarism. And there is nothing flattering about stealing someone’s else hard work and parading it as your own.
In an age where content is created with painstaking effort and enormous passion – creating a personal voice, plagiarism is not just laziness, it is intellectual dishonesty. It insults the creator, deceives the reader, and corrodes the very credibility of platforms that publishes such work. There is enough that is written about the pain that the author of the original piece of writing feels and endures, as they feel the “voice” of their writing.
What makes it worse is the audacity. When websites clearly state that all material is copyrighted and require permission for use, ignoring it is not ignorance – it is wilful violation. It reflects a mindset that believes shortcuts are acceptable, that accountability can be avoided.
Writers deserve respect. Their ideas are not free commodities to be picked and pasted. Each sentence carries thought, experience, and identity. To steal that is to erase the author’s voice while falsely amplifying another. Are we so desperate to “create” content that we have begun to reward imitation over originality? Are we willing to trade credibility for convenience? When editors fail to question, and when readers fail to notice, plagiarism quietly wins.
And worse, there are well known and highly feted lawyers who mockingly take pride in facilitating and making their wards get away with blatant violation of ethics.
To those who plagiarize, if you cannot write, do not pretend to do so by borrowing ideas. They are not writers. They are impostors hiding behind stolen sentences. As an extension, this applies not only to writing, but images (photographs), drawings and ideas.
This is not a minor issue to be brushed aside. It is a growing problem that demands strict scrutiny. Editors must take responsibility. Readers must question authenticity and those who indulge in plagiarism must be called out not quietly but firmly. Because if we normalise this, we are not just tolerating plagiarism – we are endorsing mediocrity and discouraging, if not burying genuine original talent.
Forthright and extremely well written article. It makes the point with clarity leaving no senses of ambiguity in interpretation.
Writing is a gift. It can be cultivated, but in most creative arts, it takes literally a lifetime of work to develop one’s stamp of authentic authority. By all means – quote the original author for words, ideas, images and so on – but it is incumbent upon the “borrower” to give credit and in some instances take prior permission. I should know what I am talking about since I am a poet of writer in Kannada and Tulu since 1989, but actively for over the past decade.
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Good article and well written. Surprisingly such activity is undertaken by the so called educated and enlightened, which is incorrect and should be stopped in their tracks or boycotted.
Very well written. Bravo. I want to pinpoint one experience of mine. I am birder from Mumbai, so one famous personalities in our field of birding, do the copying of books on their name. I saw one book which was exactly copied by original book and idea from Birds of Shri Lanka. Don’t want to name it. Just wanted to share with you all.
Hard hitting article!
It’s easier now to detect, having AI as tool. Eventually plagiarists will get called out. Would you mind sharing the article in question?
Leave out names if we’re entering uncharted territory!!😎
It is now an art 😅 – deplorable.
Another brilliant and hard hitting article by Mamatha on a topic of extreme relevance. For many, Plagiarism is a word which probably has no place in their dictionary. As students we all know how we used to brand our fellow classmates who didn’t burn midnight oil for the next days exam but preferred to copy from his benchmate who would have not slept all night preparing for the exam next day. Why struggle and spend sleepless nights when my intelligent friend would burn midnight oil was the standard question. SO LETS ALL UNDERSTAND COPYING STARTED VERY EARLY FROM OUR SCHOOL DAYS AND SADLY GOT ENDORSED DOWN THE LINE BECAUSE IT WASNT TREATED AS A CRIME THOSE DAYS and easily got passed off which paved way for shortcut in academic excellence.
Next came the ubiquitous COPY PASTE facility on our PC and MS WORD which made COPYING aka PLAGIARISM so very easy that many so called “Writers” considered it their right and privilege to use the COPY PASTE TOOL AND GET AWAY AS IF THEY HAD WRITTEN IT ALL BY THEMSELVES WHEN MOST WOULD NOT QUALIFY EVEN TO COMPLETE ONE GOOD SENTENCE FULLY ALL BY THEMSELVES.
Well having said this the most important issue about PLAGIARISM is ETHICS. Lets forget the technology of COPY PASTE which has made plagiarism easy. But where did our basic ethics vanish? Any self respecting individual would never resort to copy pasting any matter without the original authors consent. What would be lost if we sought the permission of the original author to reproduce the original matter. It’s human EGO WHICH DOESNT PERMIT US TO ASK FOR PERMISSION; FROM THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR BECAUSE WE WANT TO PRESENT OURSELVES AS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL. This EGO and ONEUPMANSHIP actually destroys original creativity, thinking, ideas which shall have extremely dangerous consequences where we are slowly destroying originality.
Let’s all for a while think of the humongous effort and time spent on creating and writing something original. What a tragedy it is to copy paste something which was created over Years within a few minutes and pass of as ones own. IT SIMPLY IS AN UNPARDONABLE CRIME WHICH HAS TO BE PUNISHED WITH HARSHEST “SENTENCE”, LEST WE OURSELVES KILL CREATIVITY AND ORIGINALITY.