Internet plagiarism by students

Internet Plagiarism

Even though plagiarism is illegal today, it was considered to be an art in the ancient times. The word 'Plagiarism' is derived from the Latin word 'plagiarius', which was itself plagiarized from a Greek word 'plagion', which means to kidnap, steal or abduct someone or something. With the advent of Internet, plagiarism has become quite easy and cost-effective for those people who wish to get things done by short-cut methods. Thus, the first question that comes to one's mind is, how is Internet plagiarism different from other forms of plagiarism. Internet plagiarism refers to copying ideas, information and materials for academic or other purposes from different websites, with or without rephrasing the sentences. The information available on the website is covered under copyright law. In case, an Internet user utilizes the information or an idea and gives due credit to the author, website or a source, then it is not considered as plagiarism. Internet plagiarism is rapidly becoming a subject of concern for many educators, research scientists, strategists, writers and professors all over the world.

These days, students are highly ambitious and have a zeal to be successful in their life. Some have developed a false belief that their own skills are inadequate and whatever they download from the net is of good quality, while for some it's a passion. Students may feign ignorance, that they are not aware that they are plagiarizing content. Since the information is readily available on the Internet, they forget to differentiate between common knowledge and original ideas that are intellectual property of others. Another cause for the prevalence of the 'cut and paste' mentality among students could be laziness. Postponing the work till the deadline arrives is also another reason why plagiarism flourishes. Even culture has its role to play, as some people in certain sections of society feel that the use of known work is a sign of being educated.

Many organizations all over the world are developing 'originality' checking tools to detect plagiarism or have already developed good softwares and websites as tools. Originality matters a lot and its importance is going to constantly increase with overlapping, intricate and complex