Online plagiarism, Copyright Regulations & Fair Use

According to Landers (2011), ‘in a study of 1222 undergraduates … 61.9% admitted to [engage] in online plagiarism’.

Plagiarism is one of the research misconduct which many journalists and students have committed. An article ‘Copyrighted material: fairand unfair use’ which was featured on Editors Weblog on 22 June 2011 reported that the issues of copyright and plagiarism are out of control because of the advent of Internet. ‘Sometimes material online is blatantly stolen and plagiarized’ (Pichon 2011). Journalists have to be aware of the issues, as they may be suspended or terminated if their material is plagiarized. However, plagiarism standards are still overlooked by newsrooms. This situation will cause repercussions for journalists.

‘Righthaven, a company [which] specializing in copyright litigation’ (Pichon 2011)

The Internet has become a primary information source for users. As McKenzie (cited in Wang 2008, p. 743) states, ‘The New Plagiarism may be worse than the old because [the Internet] makes it possible to find and save huge chunks of information with little reading, effort or originality’. Eventually, it causes a continuous decline in journalism standards.

Plagiarism is an ‘act of taking and using the whole or any part of another person’s work and presenting it as your own without proper acknowledgement’ (Temasek Polytechnic 2011). On the other hand, copyright is a form of legal protection to defense an author’s original works; for example, the CopyrightAct 1987 that is implemented in Malaysia. Any reader is required to obtain permission before reprinting the works. However, the Internet diminishes the division line between copyrighted and free content. Many journalists do not know how to differentiate the two terms. Upon this matter, Saver (2006, p. 574) clarifies that ‘materials available on the Internet are copyright protected in the same way that printed materials are’. It is considered as plagiarism if one uses the information without citing the original source.

Furthermore, fair use is the one of the most misunderstood concepts in copyright law. ‘This is a doctrine that provides a defense to copyright infringement for some acts’ (Hollaar 2002). The copyright act only allows copyrighted material to be reposted for the purpose of criticism, commentary, research, scholarship, teaching or news reporting. The weakness of this act is ‘the law offers virtually no details for determining which activities may be safely allowed’ (Davidson n.d., p. 5).

In sum, there are still some flaws in the ethical publishing principles and copyright regulations. The government needs to reconstruct them in order to control the issues.

Journalism is one of the main media which publish research articles. ‘Editors therefore have the responsibility to ensure that, where appropriate, research articles submitted for publication meet the ethical standards required by journal’ (Price 2009, p. 95).

References:

Davidson, H n.d., Fair use of copyrighted works, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://www.halldavidson.net/FAIRUSE.PDF>.

Hollaar, LA 2002, Chapter 1: An overview of copyright, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise13.html>.

Landers, RN 2011, ‘Online plagiarism and cybercheating still strong – 61.9%’, NeoAcademic, blos posting, 4 February, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://neoacademic.com/2011/02/04/online-plagiarism-and-cybercheating-still-strong/>.

Pichon, F 2011, ‘Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use’, Editors Weblog, 22 June, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2011/06/copyrighted_material_fair_and_unfair_use.php>.

Price, R 2009, ‘Ethical issues in publishing’, Radiography, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 95-96, viewed 11 November 2011, DOI: 10.1016/j.radi.2009.03.001.

Saver, C 2006, ‘Legal and ethical aspects of publishing’, AORN Journal, vol. 84, no. 4, pp. 571-575, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://proquest.umi.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/pqdlink?vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&ver=1&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=1144882371&exp=11-11-2016&scaling=FULL&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1321197050&clientId=14273>.

Temasek Polytechnic 2011, Plagiarism, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://spark.tp.edu.sg/lib_home/lib_research/lib_plagiarism.htm>.

Wang, YM 2008, ‘University student online plagiarism’, International Journal On E-Learning, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 743-757, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://proquest.umi.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/pqdlink?vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&ver=1&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=1580113191&exp=11-11-2016&scaling=FULL&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1321197569&clientId=14273>.

New Forms of Media Publishing

In the 21st century, cyberspace plays a dominant role in a new media ecosystem. Instead of using the word 'replacing', the Internet is a complement to traditional media. According to Oyanagi (2010), 'traditional media are mostly push media ... while the Internet is a pull medium ... which means tactics to drive web users to the website is inevitable, and this often means using and mixing with other media/communication channel'. In the new trend of publishing, audiences are no longer just passive receivers, but they can consider themselves journalists by blogging. Will this phenomenon cause the end of journalism? Well, Naughton (2006) clarifies that 'a new organism has arrived in our media ecosystem and existing organisms are having to accommodate themselves to the newcomer ... relationships are emerging between the new medium of blogging and more conventional print journalism'.

Twitter (Smashing Editorial 2009)

Twitter is 'a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read messages (known as "tweets")' (Stassen 2010, p. 7). Twitter consists of short fragments of instant information and news, either it is from official or unofficial sources. It provides a platform for users to share the latest information and news happening around the world in short but concise form. For instance, news about 311 Japan Earthquake was updated through Twitter during the happening. Besides, it also enhances the interactivity among the users and media as people can track news by clicking 'follow', 'retweet' or giving comments. Somehow, it acts as a backup channel of information in journalism. According to Rao (2010), '91% of bloggers and 68% of online reporters "always" or "sometimes" use blogs for research'. 

This phenomenon can be related to the concept of Produsage. Twitter serves as user-led space and it breaks down the boundaries between producers and consumers. As Snurb (2007) states, 'produsers engage not in a traditional form of content production, but are instead involved in ... the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement'.

The Prodeser (Snurb 2007)

Twitter is 'fundamentally built on the affordances of the technosocial framework of the networked environment' (Snurb 2007). The term affordance means 'what is made possible by the modes used' (Walsh 2006, p. 34). In this case, the content in Twitter is shared and not owned by any authoritarian. Users can share any information without waiting for the approval of gatekeepers (as what traditional media facing with). It extends 'the boundaries for the community of participants able to contribute to [Twitter]' (Snurb 2007). For instance, the dissemination of information causes a formation of citizen journalists, who do not exist in previous traditional media. However, there is still a controversy about social networking in journalism. Communicators need to be aware of this issue as it affects communication system.

References:

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.

Oyanagi, M 2010, 'Vol.22-what distinguishes Internet/Web from traditional media?', Future Direction of Web 2.0 and Internet Marketing, blog posting, 21 February, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://megoyanagi.thoseinmedia.com/2010/02/21/vol-22-%E2%80%93-what-distinguishes-internetweb-from-traditional-media/>.

Rao, L 2010, 'Study: 52 percent of bloggers consider themselves journalists', TechCrunch, blog posting, 1 April, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/01/study-52-percent-of-bloggers-consider-themselves-journalists/>.

Smashing Editorial 2009, 'Tools icons, horror icons and Twitter icons', Smashing Magazine, 12 January, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/12/tools-icons-horror-icons-and-twitter-icons/>.

Snurb 2007, Produsage: a working definition, Produsage, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://produsage.org/node/9>.

Stassen, W 2010, 'Your news in 140 characters: exploring the role of social media in journalism', Global Media Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2e15f1ac-add8-432a-b387-7ed312a6e851%40sessionmgr104&vid=2&hid=112>.

Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 24-37.