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Plagiarism Prevention and Detection

Plagiarism and the Law

Plagiarism is not a legal offence; it is an academic offence

In the event where a student commits plagiarism using copyrighted material this is not considered as copyright infringement because fair use principles would apply (Cronin 2003). However, the student will be committing an academic offence and this should be dealt with by the academic institution. Plagiarism becomes a legal offence only when there is intent to make money at the expense of the copyright owner (Cronin 2003).

Attle (2004) comments: “There is no standard definition on what amounts to plagiarism” . He further advises institutions to provide students with clear guidance on plagiarism, i.e. definitions of plagiarism, what constitutes plagiarism, and the implications of plagiarism.

Attle (2004) further notes that it is important to educate students on plagiarism and to document these communications, because these documentations can serve as proof that students have been educated on the issue of plagiarism on several occasions and this proof can be shown to a High Court Judge. He suggests that we should be able to answer the following two questions affirmitively.

“Would we be able to exhibit the material used in a training session given to all freshers?”
“Would we also be able to show – with a Lord Denning type red hand – that the university had highlighted the importance of the issue and the possible sanctions in the mass of regulations which are given to students when they register at university?”

Under the Higher Education Act 2004 (‘right to education‘ found in Article 2 of Protocol 1), a student has the right to education. Thus if a consequence of plagiarism punishment involves the student being denied to his or her right to education then the student can take the case to the High Court.

“As a final note, many universities will now have subscribed to the new scheme for student complaints and appeals operated by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator [OIA] for Higher Education which is likely to become mandatory when the relevant provisions of the Higher Education Act 2004 come into force in the new year. While the OIA will not have the power to make binding decisions or prevent students from pursuing legal proceedings, the OIA does hope that institutions will follow its recommendations.” (Attle 2004)

References

Charles Cronin (2003). “Plagiarism, Copyright, Academia and Commerce. Presentation given at Colby College”. In Proceedings of the Conference on Information Ethics and Academic Honesty .
Gary Attle (2004). “ (External) Plagiarism and the Law ”. In Proceedings of the The Higher Education Academy UK Centre for Legal Education Workshop on Plagiarism and Legal Education .

In this report, solicitor Gary Attle provides advice to higher education institutions on the subject of Plagiarism and the Law.

Useful Links

Masons Prinsent (2005). “ (External) Copyright Law for E-Learning Authors ”. Proceedings of JISC Legal – Legal Aspects of Online Learning Environments Workshop/Conference . University of Warwick.
CDPA 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, CHAPTER 48, Available from: (External) http://www.jenkins-ip.com/patlaw/cdpa1.htm#s17
(External) Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education ("OIA")
(External) JISC Legal

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