Would you dare sell lemonade and label it “Toomer’s” if it wasn’t their special recipe? Of course not. That’s illegal. Would you copy parts of a project from the Internet or from a friend and turn them in as your own? You hopefully wouldn’t do that either. That’s plagiarism. While not illegal, forgetting to properly create your own ideas can lead to a nasty lesson in court if the habit ever gets entangled with real-world business and copyright law. Here’s a PSA: don’t take what’s not yours.
Despite assumptions that students are academically honest and that adults are ethical folks, it seems we live in an unoriginal world. Copies are everywhere, and the consequences are often severe. Plagiarism, it seems, is not just an academic issue.
Coldplay was sued by a musician claiming “Viva la Vida” was a copy of his song; in fact, three musicians claimed their copyright was infringed upon. Taylor Swift was also sued by a “hater” over lyrics in “Shake It Off” (she won, the lyric in question was not proprietary). Justin Bieber and Usher were sued in 2014 for “Somebody to Love,” which is rather similar to an older song with the same name.
J.K. Rowling has faced many an evil force claiming ideas for “Harry Potter” were not all her own. Storytelling, like all ideas and creations, is almost certainly driven by an inspiration. As more publishing and sharing outlets become available, there are more stories, which equals more overlap of ideas.
As claims of copying become more common, not even the unusual categories of ideas are exempt.
Recipes handed down from grandmothers normally wouldn’t start any riots. At least not until one becomes a moneymaker. The Cronut is a trademarked pastry whose wild popularity has caused legal entanglements between the original bakery and chefs elsewhere.
Even the Olympics deal with “cheating,” and not just from athletes. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games put forth a design competition for a set of logos, and were surely shocked to discover that the designer of winning selection had plagiarized the work. The committee then held an open competition to gather new ideas on short notice and picked a new logo in late April.
At the tops of their industries, issues of honest creativity still plague all of these folks. The far-reaching effects of shortcuts or ingenuity mishaps extend beyond the arts. Non-plagiarizing professions indeed get wrapped up when writers, advertisers, musicians, designers – when anyone – decides that it is okay to copy work.
As students, we all witness or are influenced by plagiarism somehow in our academic careers. It is crucial to remember that what we take from these experiences will affect our success down the road.
Picky legal matters aside, the ethical dilemma of plagiarism is just as big a deal. We don’t steal money others have earned, nor do we take products off of store shelves without paying. It can be hard to compare plagiarizing an essay to be the same as stealing—there probably isn’t money involved in the ENGL 2200 course final—but the blip in morals is equivalent. No case can be made against that.
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