Module 7

Introduction
In this module, you will learn about ethical and legal concerns surrounding Internet
research. You will learn about intellectual property rights and how to respect them in
order to behave ethically and avoid breaking the Indian River State College Student
Code of Conduct. Becoming informed about what constitutes plagiarism and copyright
infringement is the first step in avoiding committing these unethical actions, whether
intentionally or accidentally.

Any information or outside source (print, electronic, video, interview, etc.) used in a
research paper, essay, electronic presentation or speech, which is not your own idea or
creation, must be cited or documented, giving credit to the original source. In this way,
you let your reader (in most cases this will be your professor) know which words,
phrases, images and ideas are yours and which were taken from someone else.

Documenting your resources provides a way for your reader to retrieve the sources you
used. Your reader may be fascinated by the material and wish to read further, or he/she
may question your use of the material and wish to look at the original source. Accurate
documentation of the material will allow the reader to see if you have correctly
interpreted the original source.

Additionally, when you document sources, you help to establish a reputation as a

competent researcher and writer. Your readers will see that you have used information
from credible sources.

Two other important ethical and social aspects of using the Internet are covered in
these readings. They are netiquette, manners for the Internet, and one's digital footprint.
Remember: once something is online, it is there forever. Keep this in mind when
representing yourself on the Internet.

Plagiarism
Presenting another's words or ideas as your own (i.e., not documenting them) is called
plagiarism. This form of intellectual theft may range from an intentional purchase of a
term paper, re-using a paper from another class (called self plagiarism), to the
intentional or unintentional and inadvertent failure to use proper documentation in your
paper. In any case, plagiarism is an academic offense and can lead to serious
consequences.

Some examples of plagiarism include:

● Taking a concept or idea from a source without citing (accidental or deliberate)

● Paraphrasing an original text without citing the source
● Buying a paper from an online term paper service
● Hiring someone to write a paper
● Copying a friend's paper and handing it in as your own
● Deliberately misquoting a source or paraphrasing in such a manner that the
original meaning is changed
● Copying or changing streaming videos or photographs without citing the sources.
● Copying and pasting a paragraph from a web page into the text of a research
paper without citing the source

Some examples that are NOT plagiarism include:

● Historical facts, i.e., dates of birth/death, locations of events and the like
● Common knowledge, i.e. Information that can be found in numerous places,
undocumented, and is known by many people
● Folk literature, which is popularly known and cannot be traced to particular
writers, is considered common knowledge. This would include nursery rhymes,
fairy tales, and any stories from the oral tradition of literature. Even if you read
these things in printed form, documentation is not needed.
● Commonsense observations
● Your own original thoughts, experiences, and observations
● Quotes, paraphrases, or summaries that have been properly documented

Copyright Issues
Closely related to issues of documentation and plagiarism, but on a commercial level, is
the issue of copyright protection of intellectual property. Copyright issues in the digital
era are generating much controversy.

At its most basic level, copyright law ensures that authors have exclusive rights to
protect their creative efforts. The item protected must be a tangible one, i.e., a work on
paper, whether it be a book, periodical article, or poem, a piece of software, CD,
recording, work of art or sculpture, photograph, web site, web audio file, web video file,
web graphic image, or any other publication. The item must also be creative, i.e., an
alphabetical list of facts would generally not be copyrighted while a creative compilation
of those same facts would be copyright protected.

The 1976 Copyright Law of the U.S. (Title 17, U.S. Code) provides basic protection for
original works of authorship. Section 106 of the Copyright Law gives the copyright
owner the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, or license his or her
work, or to produce or license derivative copies of his or her work.

As new technologies associated with the Internet have evolved and online education
initiatives have expanded, copyright laws developed in 1976 have become increasingly
inadequate. In 1988, the United States signed the amended Berne Convention for the
Protection of Literary and Artistic Work, an international copyright treaty. Changes
brought by the Berne Convention included greater protection for copyright holders,
copyright relations with other countries, and the elimination of a requirement of
copyright notice on a protected work. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 was
signed into law by President Clinton on October 28, 1998. The DMCA attempts to
protect owners of electronic copyright, but the nature of the Internet and the easy way
information can be duplicated and dispersed has made this a very difficult task.

You should consider most everything published on the Internet as copyright

protected. The few categories of works not protected by copyright law include:
● Works that lack originality (compilations like the phone book)
● Materials in the public domain
● U.S. government publications
● Ideas
● Short phrases
● Facts (unless they are presented in an original work such as a list of facts)

Fair Use
The "fair use" exemption to copyright law was created to allow for educational use of
copyrighted works without having to ask for permission from the author. Fair use allows
you to incorporate web items into your reports, speeches, electronic presentations and
other academic creations as long as you properly document the source; the item used is
a short excerpt; and your usage does not harm the commercial value of the source. It is
also considered acceptable and legal to provide a link to a website, audio file, video file
or other web resource. You should not reproduce protected material, whether it is for
commercial gain or not, unless the "author" expressly gives permission for duplication or
reproduction. The site, image, file, etc. does not have to display a copyright notice in
order to be protected, nor does it have to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
The following sites will help you keep on top of the copyright issue:

● A Brief Introduction to Copyright

● Ten Big Myths About Copyright Explained
● United States Copyright Office
● Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center

How to Avoid Plagiarism and Copyright Law Violation

It is important to avoid both plagiarism and violating copyright law.

For copyright law, be sure to fall under at least one of the following:
  pass the Fair Use Test,
 use a Creative Commons work,
 secure permission to use the work from its creator, or
 create the work (image, video, text) yourself.

Once you have accomplished adherence to copyright law, you need to cite, or attribute,
the work to its creator to avoid plagiarism. You can do this by:
 adding an attribution statement, like the one described by the Creative Commons
wiki,
 including in-text and reference citations, or
 license your own work through Creative Commons.

General Rules of Documentation

There are a number of documentation styles currently in use by researchers. Many
disciplines have very specific rules concerning documentation that must be followed.
Two documentation styles used by a number of disciplines are those published by the
American Psychological Association (APA) and the Modern Language
Association (MLA).

The APA style is used primarily by disciplines in the social sciences, health and
education fields while the MLA style is used primarily by disciplines in the arts,
humanities and literature. This course provides information on proper documentation of
electronic sources from both the American Psychological Association (APA) and the
Modern Language Association (MLA) and will provide examples for the types of
electronic sources commonly used by students.

Some general rules that apply to both styles include the following:

● Document any material you quote exactly.

○ Follow the rules of the specific style concerning quotation marks.
○ Keep long quotations to a minimum. Save these quotes for text expressed
in a unique way.
● Document any material you summarize or paraphrase.
○ When you change the wording of an idea, it still remains the intellectual
property of the original author.
○ Do not use quotation marks when paraphrasing.
○ In most research papers, you should find that the majority of your
documented sources are ones that you have paraphrased or summarized.
● Do not document material that is common knowledge.
○ If material is commonly known to be true, it does not need to be
documented, even if you found the material in an outside source.
○ This includes material not known to you prior to reading about it, but
generally known to others, including historical dates and facts, most
verifiable facts and information that can be found in standard reference
 books, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries and almanacs.
○ If you are unsure of whether or not you should document a source, be on
the safe side and include documentation.
○ You do not need to document your own ideas or thoughts.
● Follow the rules of the specific style you are using regarding in-text or
parenthetical references.
○ If you cite an Internet source that does not contain pagination, leave that
off of the parenthetical or in-text reference.
○ In APA style, you would include the author(s) and year of publication or in
the case of a source with no author, the first few words of the title, in
quotation marks, and the year of publication. If you use a direct quote, also
include the pagination, if available.
○ In MLA style, you would include the author(s) or in the case of a source
with no author, the first few words of the title, in quotation marks. If you have
accurate pagination information from a pdf file, include that.
○ Examples are provided in the next modules for in-text references.
● The goal in documenting sources is to aim for comprehensiveness
although for many electronic sources, you will need to settle for citing
whatever information is available.
○ Include as much information as necessary to identify the source and allow
the reader to locate it.
○ For Internet sources, the absolute minimum you should cite is the title, the
date you accessed the site, and the address (URL) of the site according to
the rules of the specific style you are using (APA or MLA).
○ Keep in mind that an Internet source that does not list full bibliographic
information (especially an author and date of publication) may not be a
credible source based on the evaluation criteria discussed earlier in this
course. Look at such a source carefully.
○ You will discover that professors have differing opinions about what
should or should not be included in the documentation for an electronic
source. This lesson will adhere as closely as possible to the current views
of APA & MLA as expressed on their organization home pages. In all cases,
check with your professor for his or her preference.
● College libraries and large public libraries will have the following resources
that should be consulted for information on capitalization, punctuation and
the like for both MLA and APA styles.
○ Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth
Edition
○ MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Seventh Edition

Both the APA and the MLA have websites that provide their official view on
documentation of electronic sources.

 APA Style
 MLA Style
Netiquette and Digital Footprint
Netiquette, or Internet Etiquette
When communicating on the Internet, it is essential to observe certain rules of behavior.
Effective communications are governed by “netiquette” (internet etiquette). Actually,
netiquette refers to rules of behavior governing the use of all Internet services, including
discussion groups, web pages, blogs and social media.

 Never say anything you don't want made public. Think before you post a
message; always make sure you really want to send what you have written.
Messages may easily be forwarded to others or saved for retrieval later. Online
messages are not secure. Most organizations archive all email messages that
pass through their servers, and messages may also be intercepted en route.
 Don't post online when you are emotional. If you are angry, you can sound
abusive or threatening. Be careful when expressing humor and sarcasm because
it can be misinterpreted. With most systems, you can't get the message back
after you click the send button.
 Use emoticons (smileys) to help express emotion. Standard emoticons include:

 Emoticons may not be appropriate in business or professional correspondence.

A large collection of emoticons is available from The Unofficial Smiley Dictionary
on the Electronic Freedom Foundation's Extended Guide to the Internet.
 Use informative, carefully phrased subject headings. Many people get a hundred
or so messages a day from email or social media. If you want your message to
be read, give your messages concise and informative subject headers.
 DON'T USE ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS! IT'S EQUIVALENT TO SHOUTING.
Don't use all lower case either. It's much easier to read a mixture of upper and
lower case letters, especially if you need to use proper nouns or names such as
Mary Smith, United States, NASA, etc.
 Keep the sentence and paragraph length reasonably short. Some systems break
up lines longer than 65 characters. If the note is forwarded, it might be indented
by tab or may be strangely formatted by other mail systems. Sometimes strange
characters are inserted at the ends of lines, which makes reading long sentences
difficult.
 Some writers feel standards of grammar, spelling, style, and document form no
longer apply when communicating online, but this isn't true. You should use the
 same courtesy with electronic message readers as with print readers. Make an
effort to spell words correctly, use correct grammar, use capital letters correctly,
and space between paragraphs. You will make a better impression on the
recipient.
 The Internet is an international network made up of people with differing
characteristics, including ethnicity, race, age, and sexual orientation. Be sensitive
to these differences, and be careful with slang.
 Avoid local abbreviations and acronyms, or define the ones you use.
 When replying to an email message or discussion group posting, include at least
a thread of the original email you are replying to just to remind the recipient of the
original subject discussed, but don't include the entire message to which you are
replying. Edit out all the irrelevant material.
 Don't redistribute private email or social media communications sent to you
without first asking the originator's permission.
 Avoid sending messages to large numbers of users unless you have a valid
reason to do so. Email or social media messages sent to many recipients may be
considered spam. Never send chain letters via electronic mail. Chain letters
spread misinformation, clog mail servers, and reduce bandwidth on the Internet.
 “Phishing” is also a common problem in email communication. Phishing occurs
when someone sends you an email message pretending to be your bank, credit
card company, or other official entity. They typically try to frighten you by saying
that your account has been compromised in some way, and then try to trick you
into giving them your account number or other sensitive information. The
following websites provide information on chain letters, phishing scams, and
Internet hoaxes:
○ Hoax Warnings
○ Hoaxbusters
○ Snopes.com
 Use “Reply All” cautiously. Increasing numbers of viral “Reply All” email
messages has given rise to a new phenomenon, the email storm. Email servers
can be overloaded with such messages.
 Sign your email messages. Be sure to include your name and address, or
organization, if appropriate. You can create a signature file ahead of time and
add it to the end of your messages.

For more information about the rules of netiquette, visit these sites:

 The online version of Virginia Shea’s book, Netiquette

 Email Etiquette
 NetManners.com

Your Digital Footprint

The Internet has the ability to track your online behavior. Every time you download
software from the web, “like” something on a social network, or purchase something
from an online merchant, you leave a “digital footprint” behind. If you say something
online, it can hang around in cyberspace forever – even if you delete it. Your online
behavior can potentially be seen your employer or someone else who you might not
want to see it. Avoid revealing private information about yourself or about others. This
may include things as simple as your whereabouts. For example, geo-location based
social media applications like Foursquare are lots of fun, but they’re also a really
efficient way of letting people know you’re not home. Use caution and common sense
when interacting with others online, and when entering sensitive information such as
bank account numbers and social security numbers. When creating a password, try to
make it difficult for others to guess. Safeguard your passwords and avoid sharing them
with others. Most importantly, when you sign up for a social network or other online
service, make sure you read and understand the privacy settings associated with that
service.

You can see saved webpages from years back by going to the Internet Archive Way
Back Machine.

Additional Guidelines
 Respect copyright. Give credit to other people’s work when appropriate, and
avoid posting copyrighted material (images, videos, etc.)
 Fight cyberbullying. According to the National Crime Prevention Council,
cyberbullying is a problem that affects almost half of American teens.
Cyberbullying is a crime, and should never be practiced. If you or someone you
know becomes a victim of cyberbullying. StopBullying.gov is a website that
contains information on what you can do.
 Be authentic. Even though some social networks allow you to use pseudonyms
or create fictitious avatars, it can still be important to be honest, and avoid
misrepresenting yourself. While role-playing can be interesting and fun, and is
certainly appropriate in some online environments, you might find social
interaction on the web more meaningful if you just be yourself.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 License
Copyright © 1997-2015 Florida College System, Council on Instructional Affairs,
Learning Resources Standing Committee. Last revised June 2015 by the LIS 2004 Course Revision Committee.