“DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COPYRIGHT AND PLAGIARISM”

INTRODUCTION
Copyright evolution is closely connected to the technological development. With the large
number of database of documents present in online libraries and sources, the protection of one’s
original work became difficult. Copyrights and plagiarism is a way to protect someone’s
intellectual property from being stolen. Copyright is an authority given to the content creator to
protect his work from being used without acknowledgement or credits. Whereas, plagiarism is
misrepresenting someone’s work as your own.
Copyright and plagiarism are interlinked but different.

COPYRIGHT
Harrod’s Librarians’ Glossary explains Copyright as “a procedure whereby the originator of a
piece of intellectual property (book, article, piece of music etc.) acquires a series of rights over
the work created, including copying, publishing, performing, broadcasting and adaptation. The
changing world and multiplicity of items led to substantial changes in copyright legislation and
international agreements, current technological advances have put copyright law under stress
again.”1
All those rights, protecting intellectual property to be safe from being stolen are copyrights.
Copyright is the authority given to a content creator to help protect his content from being
reproduced. The exclusive authority for using a work is copyright ownership.
In Pakistan, copyright protection is governed by the provisions of the Copyright Ordinance,
1962. Pakistan is a member of Berne Copyright Union and the Universal Copyright Convention.
In accordance with the Copyright ordinance, 1962 copyright ownership lasts 50 years after the
death of the copyright owner (author).
Author gets the exclusive power to publish, reproduce, perform or translate his work. Any of
these acts by someone else is considered to be a Copyright infringement. Copyright infringement
can be claimed in the form of damages and injunctive relief by the Court of District Judge or
Copyright Board.

However, the concept of “fair use” poses a limitation on copyrights. The following factors are
considered to determine whether the use of content comes under the ambit of “fair use” or not

1. The purpose of use. If the work is used for commercial or non-profit academic purposes

1
Sengupta, S. (2015). “Copyright and Plagiarism. Are they really two sides of a coin?”, Journal2. Issue2.
Department of Library & Information Science C.T.Bora College, Shirur, Dist.Pune. from
http://eprints.rclis.org/25412/1/Copyright_Infringement___Plagiarism.pdf
2. The ratio of copyrighted work used
3. The nature of copyrighted content
4. The effect on the market or value of the copyrighted content

PLAGIARISM
The word plagiarism is defined as “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of
someone’s original work. Plagiarism is the misrepresentation of somebody else’s work as your
own. Taking credit for somebody else’s ideas or the lack of acknowledgement of the author of
the work is considered as plagiarism. Plagiarism is not a legal offence however; it can be
challenged under violation of moral rights.

Fishman (2009) defines Plagiarism by mentioning various elements involved in it. Plagiarism
occurs when someone:
1. Uses words, ideas, or content
2. Credited to another anonymous person or source
3. Without citing the work to the source from which it was obtained
4. In order to obtain some monetary benefits2

There are different types of plagiarism like complete plagiarism which is the submission of
someone else’s work as your own, source-based plagiarism is using a source that is invalid or
doesn’t exist, self-plagiarism is using your own words that have already been used for some
other content etc.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PLAGIARISM AND COPYRIGHT

The core difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement is that an original work can
be plagiarized without being a subject to copyright infringement and vice versa. A person can
plagiarise any work may it be protected or not under copyright laws.
A person claiming to take credit for “Doctor Faustus” will be plagiarism but not copyright
infringement due to the play being in public domain.
Plagiarism can also exist even if the original content is reproduced after permission because the
work does not originally belong to you

2
Fishman, T. (2009, September 28-30). We know it when we see it is not good enough: toward a
standard definition of plagiarism that transcends theft, fraud and copyright. Paper presented at 4th Asia
Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity, University of Wollongong NSW Australia. (pp.1-5). Retrieved
December 1, 2014 from ​https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/09-4apcei/4apcei-Fishman.pdf
PLAGIARISM COPYRIGHT

Offence to the author Offence to the copyright owner (not always

the author)

It is a moral offence It is a legal offence

Considered to be a moral offence in the Quite occurring in the academic community

academic community

Acknowledgement of the author nulls Acknowledgement of copyright owner

plagiarism doesn’t make a change

Copying an idea Copying exact words, images or expressions