Creative personalities such as musicians, writers, artists and inventors are well aware of what plagiarism is. As a rule, they have come across this concept many times directly or indirectly and are aware of the harm that it does to their work and career. Therefore, they rush to patent intellectual property so as not to get into an unpleasant situation. Before giving any advice to consumers, you need to familiarize yourself with the concept of plagiarism and its features.
So, the meaning of the word plagiarism has been known since the 17th century. This term was used when they characterized literary theft. As for more ancient times, in Roman law there was the concept of "plagium", which was called the sale of a free man into slavery. The punishment for such an act was flagellation. To date, the lexical meaning of this term has changed slightly, and now it stands for copyright assignment, which is carried out by publishing someone else’s work or some part of it under its own name.
Of course, considering what plagiarism is, it should be noted that its interpretation in several sources suggests that the essence of the concept may differ. So, many of them interpret the term as a violation of copyright, which manifests itself in the unauthorized use of the work. But in this case, imitation and borrowing fall under this definition, which young authors often resort to when they are in search of their own style. When a writer uses the famous Onegin stanza, in this context it is also considered as a variant of plagiarism.
Of course, no one doubts that plagiarism is a negative phenomenon. Each of us understands that it is illegal, and people who resort to it are liable to punishment. However, before you make up your mind about this phenomenon, you need to understand what plagiarism is. As a rule, the author is equated with the use by the author of a part of the work and even modification of it so that the author does not guess about anything. This is already regarded as a violation of intellectual property rights. Moreover, such a phenomenon is not only common in the literature. There is such a thing as musical plagiarism. Based on the fact that all contemporary art is, to one degree or another, based on someone’s tendencies and positions, there is nothing to be surprised at. In almost any musical composition, if you study it in detail, you can find those or other motives that have previously met somewhere. Most often, such a “borrowing” is characteristic of a domestic song, when authors and performers begin to reproduce Western motives. However, as noted above, due to the vague meaning of the term “plagiarism”, these actions are not such, because the performers do not try to appropriate authorship.
Today, due to the massive use of the Internet as a communication network, the concept of plagiarism has arisen in this area. It would seem that everyone uses materials from the World Wide Web, but, clarifying what plagiarism is on the Internet, we note that this is again a complete copy of the text and the attribution of someone else’s authorship to it. We, without hesitation, use other people's photos, articles and notes for our own purposes, without specifying the source. But these actions are not plagiarism, because we also do not appropriate our authorship.
Any person who, one way or another, encounters information in one form or another, should know that plagiarism is a violation of copyright, patent and personal rights. Therefore, for such actions not only civil, but also criminal liability is provided. And, deciding to use any information, ask the author if he will not be against your actions. Written confirmation is best.