DOTW - Plagiarism - How fair is it??

Hello Friends

I know its a long time we had some global debates in our forum.. So, coming up with a very lite subject which many of them can participate..

We have been hearing about plagiarism in music, paintings, books, movies and these days we can even see it in various forums where a concept is copied from one forum to another

I was browsing through few of the sites and found many updates being copied from one forum to another.. Its not only the videos or updates, but also various concepts being copied from one forum to another.. The designs of websites are also copied..

So, the question for debate here is:

1. Is it fair to copy someone's creation or idea without being given a credit?
2. We have seen music, siggy's, site designs, concepts being plagiarized.. So, in what all aspects can the plagiarism be allowed?? Or can it be allowed?
3. What are the ways you think we can stop plagiarism?
4. Should plagiarism be punished by law??
   

Now, the ball is in ur court and do add your own opinion in this topic

Regards
DM Dev Team

excellent topic

1. 
   
2. Is it fair to copy someone's creation or idea without being given a credit?

i think this is really unfair...........................

1. We have seen music, siggy's, site designs, concepts being plagiarized.. So, in what all aspects can the plagiarism be allowed?? Or can it be allowed?

according to me this can not be allowed bcoz the only person who has put his effort in it knows well how he or she worked hard n if they sees their work has been copied without giving them any credit is really upsetting..............
n if you like anybody's site ,siggy then just give credit to him or her......
or if u like the concept just take some idea n start making by ur self ... 
What are the ways you think we can stop plagiarism?

i dont no what the ways to stop them

1. Should plagiarism be punished by law??

yes

Great topic

1. Is it fair to copy someone's creation or idea without being given a credit?

I think it is fair to get inspired by other's work but YES due credit needs to be given to the source.

1. We have seen music, siggy's, site designs, concepts being plagiarized.. So, in what all aspects can the plagiarism be allowed?? Or can it be allowed?

again, as long as u take permission or give credit to the source, it's fair to use the music/videos/siggies etc

What are the ways you think we can stop plagiarism? it is essentially a moral issue so people need to have a conscience and not try to steal other's work and claim it as their own. Of course, there are laws against stealing intellectual property of others and copyright protection laws against media/movies/publications. Should plagiarism be punished by law??
1. unfortunately, most people don't have a strong enough conscience, therefor, law has to be enforced
   

Edited by bheegi - 15 September 2008 at 7:20am

Excellent topic!! If there's anything in the world that annoys me most is plagiarism.  It's just not fair to the original person who was creative enough to think of something that everyone else takes his/her credit.

1. Is it fair to copy someone's creation or idea without being given a credit? No, not at all.  It's not fair to them or to anyone else.  It takes time to think of something original and creative and that person only should get the credit.  Why and how can you steal someone's idea without their permission and without giving them due credit? That's wrong and should be stopped as much as possible. 
   
2. We have seen music, siggy's, site designs, concepts being plagiarized.. So, in what all aspects can the plagiarism be allowed?? Or can it be allowed?  It shouldn't be allowed.  You should give people their due credit if it's totally their idea.  If you're copying their exact idea/thoughts then it's not ok to plagiarize but sometimes, especially in creative fields people call it inspiration and can't always name the person who came up with it.  For example, everytime you use circles in your picture or diagram you can't go back and give the credit to the person who came up with circles.  I know it's a bad example but you see the point right? Something so general as this is not called plagiarism but if you're copying exact same (or a little variation of the idea even) then that's wrong.
   
3. What are the ways you think we can stop plagiarism? Hmm.. That's a tough one but I guess that if you come across something that's been plagiarized then we should step up and report the person.  There should be strict laws against it and the people should be punished if they steal somebody else's idea/creation without permission and due credit.
   
4. Should plagiarism be punished by law?? Yes, yes, yes!  As I said above, law can play a critical role in this.  I am not talking about sending people to jails (although for stealing somebody's project reports or whatever that can count as fraud and jail is a good idea) but fines can do a lot.  

-Mahi

BRB....

Nice topic! We needed some healthy discussion !

Is it fair to copy someone's creation or idea without being given a credit? 

Obviously not, someone else's idea...and some other person gets the credit for the hardwork....so not fair! !
We have seen music, siggy's, site designs, concepts being plagiarized.. So, in what all aspects can the plagiarism be allowed?? Or can it be allowed?

There is a thin line between inspiration and plagiarism....inspiration is well ... getting inspired .....for example....the movie krissh....was not a ripoff but it was an inpiration....i have seen ET and Krrish....i didn't find major ripoffs from the movie ET...but ripping off the whole concept....thats not inspiration...that would be called plagiarism.... !

Plagiarism should not be allowed. Its like....you make a siggy....someone else edits the siggy and puts his/her name on it...! how would you feel??? heartbroken....and mostly...angry....wouldn't you?
What are the ways you think we can stop plagiarism?

Honestly, I can't think of anything....but after the Sony Ericsson and the Krazzy  4 jingle controversy....I think that guy was right in approaching the court of law....if ppl find their work copied....they should approach the court and get justice....so that other such ppl can be discouraged to do such things...

1. Should plagiarism be punished by law??
   Definately..!
   

Thanks Anuradha for coming up with a interesting debate topic.

I think we need to first define Plagiarism clearly cause there are several instances where we see a very fine line between Plagiarism and "Inpired from".

I will base my discussion from the webmaster and site owners perspective. There are so many instances that we come across where something is taken from one site to another and both claiming to be the owner. .  But the one who has copied knows he is lying not just to others but to himself also.

If we are putting something on the internet and we feel that our work will be SAFE from plagiarism then its not going to be the case and we can just try to make it difficult.

Internet is like that and you cant change much about it. Now when I see someone copying that then it reminds me a famous saying:  "Plagiarism is the sincerest form of Flattery" .

Since you mentioned forums so that reminds me that we were the first forum on Indian television shows that we can safely say that we started the whole and since then we have seen so many new sites / forums coming and going. So it does make out the space quite cluttered.

But in all this the funnies things that I have noticed:

• Some sites not just copy the whole site layout (would not name them) but also copied the TITLE and Meta tags
  
  
• Some of the Groups that we have created were created by us : Viewbies, Coolbies, Rockerz, Dazzlers, Goldie and we see people copying these groups too.

Personally I spend a lot of time on the internet and a good time and in search of nice ideas. And somewhere or the other we all have taken ideas (or something that has sparked another idea) and improved on it.  For example: Our forum application is based on WebWizForums software and we have built on it as it has not been made to take the kind of traffic we have.

And from time to time we have added a lot of features which we find later being added on the original software at a later date. So ideas are no one's monopoly till they are worked upon and executed in their own style instead of copying the whole thing.

But yeah I can understand how one feels when their work is straight being copied without giving credits which is really wrong

What is the way out and how to solve the problem?

I feel we should form a "Anti-Plagiarism Group" on India-Forums.com  whose whole purpose will be to attack the sites who copies the written daily updates, news articles (done by our team) without credits and linkback. Volunteers WANTED! And an active team can really solve this problem to a greater extent.

Do let me know what you all think about it?

Cheers,
Vijay


Edited by vijay - 15 September 2008 at 12:46pm

1. Is it fair to copy someone's creation or idea without being given a credit?

          no not at all you are just being disrespectful to the person and making their efforts futile!

 

1.  We have seen music, siggy's, site designs, concepts being plagiarized.. So, in what all aspects can the plagiarism be allowed?? Or can it be allowed?

              No there should be zero tolerance towards plaigarism, it may sound harsh but its the only way.

What are the ways you think we can stop plagiarism?
1. Should plagiarism be punished by law??
   i think there are copyright and patent laws

janhvi : D