Week 6 Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

I always wondered if I was plagiarizing when I was writing a paper. I would like to think that I am following the rules and that I have given credit to an individual where credit is due. I would never want another person using my work or coping my paper so I would like to think that in my career as a student and even in my everyday life that I am doing all that I can to be honest and respectful of other individuals hard work. Now there has been a time or two that I really didn’t want to put in the work and the thought crossed my mind to just borrow someone else’s ideal or work. The my conscience kicks in and I see myself losing sleep and worrying that I was forever condemned to live with this huge cloud of guilt following me around for all eternity.

Going into this assignment I was annoyed that I was again having the importance of citing and giving credit to others drilled into my head. I think that every year of school from the time I can remember being a student we are preached the importance of doing our own work, not “borrowing” other people’s work, and citing and giving credit to those who deserve it. Then I started reading and watching further into the assignment and ideas that had not crossed my mind as being a trap for plagiarism were brought to the surface. Most interesting to me was the discussion on U-Tube and how someone posts a video, that videos music is used in another video and the new video goes viral giving credit to the first video, and then the new video is used as a spoof in a show and now we have a zillion views and the original owner of the work hits another chart top. Had the copyright laws been written different in the posting and sharing of U-Tube videos the original singer of the song may never had this huge success of a second chart topping with the same song.

Don’t get me wrong I am sure in the world of law this goes far deeper than a normal liberal studies student wants to delve but the surface of it was very interesting and informative. Then let’s take the copyright doodles. I did not know that if I merely write down a sentence or doodle a picture that those ideals are mine and therefor a copyright. No one can use or replicate those ideals or words. Makes one wonder how many doodles or words that I lost that are now million dollar songs or cartoons.

The information I read and watched opened my eyes just a little more to the mistakes that I could make in my research and writing that could cost me significantly in the long haul. I would like to think that I would never use someone else’s work and pass it off as my own, however there is no way to prove that it was a mistake. The consequences are not worth it to me to be lazy or haphazard. I can see that there may still be a grey area that I need to pursue when it comes to using ideas that one posts on their blogs. Often times I look for ideas for art projects from other people in my profession and wonder if I do the activity as they have written am I then also “borrowing” work that is not meant to be borrowed.