Is plagiarism good?

Here is the definition of plagiarism: the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.
synonyms: copying, infringement of copyright, piracy, theft, stealing;

You tell me. Does that sound “good” to you? Lots of people have great ideas. As long as you properly give them credit it isn’t plagiarizing.

Here is the definition of plagiarism: the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.
synonyms: copying, infringement of copyright, piracy, theft, stealing;

You tell me. Does that sound “good” to you? Lots of people have great ideas. As long as you properly give them credit it isn’t plagiarizing.

I would say it is good, but only in my case since in my case it is legal and is thus my own work.

In my university, I was required to take on a lot of classes that had nothing to do with my major, so I hired a service that did all the work for me. They write papers, articles, dissertations, you name it. All of it is original (not plagiarized) work. So by definition, and legally speaking, it is not plagiarism, and considered my own work the minute I receive it from the service, but still, if the University would have ever found out, they would probably say it is plagiarism because I hired someone else to do the work. So in my opinion, the University would be in the wrong here to call it plagiarism.

There are a lot of these services, but good ones are usually composed of ex-Ph.D’s who write up the work for you for some extra/side income.

Someone I knew did something even better. They paid someone to actually attend University for him. All 5 years. All original work, all legal, nothing plagiarized.

Or here is another example. My contract with my employer says nothing about outsourcing, so I outsource my work to a company in India, they return my work back to me, I look it over for errors, and then give it to my boss. I collect my salary and give only a small cut (cheap labor) to the company in India.

Quick! Someone Google his questions and see if they’re already asked somewhere!

@eno The University may not call it plagiarism, which it may or may not be, based on the fact that it is someone else’s words you are taking credit for. Sure, you paid for them, but you did not write them. Plagiarism and cheating are not synonymous here, but you cannot deny that what you were doing was cheating. You could have been expelled if you had been discovered. That being said, I wrote a few papers for cash while in college. I don’t know the consequence to me if I had been caught, honestly. There may not be one for the person actually writing a paper since they aren’t in the class. My gut tells me that because I was a student somehow I would have been punished, I just don’t know how.

I’m not sure calling fraud “legal” is accurate.

I think your outsourcing is pretty brilliant. Work smart, not hard. I don’t know if it would be plagiarism, again soley based on you putting your name on someone else’s words… But I doubt anyone cares in your job unless these reports are being published.

Small side note: once you have earned a Ph.D you can’t be an ex-Ph.D, unless your degree is stripped. Most common reason for the stripping: plagiarism.

Well, then, to clear things up, I would say I consider plagiarism good as long as it is legal. Using the previous examples, “infringement of copyright” is not the legal kind of plagiarism, so it is bad, where as owning the rights to someone else’s work that I paid for is legal and thus good.

“Ex-Ph.D” was meant to say that they no longer work in a University. I don’t know what the reason for that is. Could be retirement.

@GloPro I don’t know if it would be plagiarism, again soley based on you putting your name on someone else’s words…

It is plagiarism according to the definition: the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

There is just no good or bad mentioned in the definition and no specification as to whether you took with/without paying someone for that work/ideas that you passed off as your own. This is where value judgement comes in. So I repeat, I consider plagiarism good as long as it legal.

Plagiarism is never legal nor is it ever ethical. If you’re going to cheat, at least be honest with yourself about it.

Plagiarism is never ethical nor is it ever legal . If you’re going to cheat, at least be honest with yourself about it or change a word or two in the process.

Was that planned @janbb and @Cruiser, or do you share the same brain?

@livelaughlove21 Yeah – but mine is the left hemisphere and he occupies the right one.

@janbb Is it me or you who has the headache today?

I know what you did @Cruiser ! !

@Tropical_Willie ;)

@eno What difference does it make whether what you did is strictly legal? No one will ever try to have you arrested for it. That is not the question. An act can be legal and still be wrong.

All universities at least nominally reward plagiarism with expulsion. So you cannot possibly tell them that the work is not yours – you are necessarily pretending that you did the work. To submit work that you (sorry – “your friend”) paid someone else to do is a kind of fraud, and to claim that it is “good” is absurd. I recommend that you sit down with the current dean of any university and discuss the “goodness” of submitting work that one has bought.

The question is asking if plagiarism is good and its legality.

From the moment I purchase someone else’s work, it legally becomes mine. If the University were to ask me is this my work, I can honestly say it is my own, that I wrote it. I am not required to tell them that someone else wrote it because legally, I wrote it. The other person doesn’t exist anymore. However, looking at it as a third perspective, it is plagiarism according to the definition. Now I consider plagiarism good because my actions were legal and because I benefited greatly from it. Why would I consider it bad?

It’s as good as stealing. Just think of all the great stuff you can get for free it you steal it. What’s not to like?

No, doing it intentionally is not right… It’s claiming someone else’s efforts, words or ideas as your own.

@eno, your thinking is not logical. Are you suggesting that if you bought a painting, from say Picasso or Renoir, because you own the painting, that it is now your work? It isn’t your work at all, you own the painting, but you did not paint the painting, so the work is not your own.

On the other side of that coin, if you happened to be a very talented painter, with no recognition of your own and you painted a copy of a Picasso or a Renoir and tried to pass it off as having been painted by them (making it valuable) then you would be committing fraud.

If you didn’t write the papers, even though you own the actual paper it was typed on, by purchasing it (which is probably not legal either, because it was done for fraudulent purposes, and you are lying about who actually wrote the words) you don’t own the work and if you try to pass it off as your own, you are cheating the University, and in the meantime you are not learning how to write and formulate ideas on your own. Even though you may be able to trick everybody and get a degree, the degree is pretty much worthless.

Would you want your medical doctor to have one of these fake degrees if you were going to him or her to be treated for cancer or a heart attack, knowing that this person did not learn the information that was necessary to treat you?

It’s illegal enough to have you thrown out of university, possibly thrown in jail.

@Kardamom

If I bought a painting from Picasso, I can do and say whatever I want with that painting. He loses his rights to it after I pay him. It is my property now. Since he loses rights to it, then there is nothing for me to violate. Are you legally saying I cannot?

I agree that if I didn’t have rights to it, and I copied it as a talented painter, then I would violate his rights. But that is not the case here.

The services that offer to do work for others are legitimate and my purchase of said service is legal. These are official companies, not some underground scheme. The service offers only original ideas, No plagiarism. Now again, in terms of legality, once I buy the work, it becomes my copyright. I say and do whatever I want with it. They even advertise as such. Since it legally belongs to me, then in all honesty and legally speaking, I am its author. I can claim I wrote it, and thus I’m not cheating the University. I agree that if the University found out, somehow, that it was written by someone else, they would expel me. There is no criminal charge though.

If you read my first answer In my university, I was required to take on a lot of classes that had nothing to do with my major, so I hired a service that did all the work for me. The actual classes that were relevant to my major, I studied for on my own except for the nuanced homework that I felt was not relevant to enhancing my knowledge. So I studied for midterms, finals, but used the services for the nuanced work that wasn’t necessary for my education.

I wouldn’t mind if my medical doctor used this type of service for a class that has nothing to do with his major. Also, a lot of the jobs teach on the site, but they require the degree. Just that piece of paper. So, if the paper is the goal, you don’t give it a good old try to get it if you have easier avenues.

Your powers of reasoning are very flawed @eno.

Yes, you buy a Picasso, you can do what you want with it. You can sell it, but you can’t sell it and say “I painted this.” You can throw it in the trash. You can do whatever you want with it, but you can not claim credit for having painted it. That would be a lie.

Who cares if it would be a lie? It is still legal for me to say I painted it and since I benefited from this purchased type of plagiarism, the plagiarism is good for me.

It isn’t legal.

So what is the specific law that says it is not legal?

Read

“The act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one’s own creation.”

I bought it. The copyright belongs to me now. The author gave it up by selling it. Plagiarism doesn’t apply here.

@eno Has nothing to do with whether you bought it or not. Either you are being deliberately obtuse or you have no ethics.

Yeah, he’s playing games. That’s what I think @janbb.

Ok, we’re going in circles. Last time.

Definition of plagiarism the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

If you take someone’s ideas without their permission, or without sourcing them, you’re plagiarizing their work. That is illegal by law. However, if the author sells you his copyright, then the author forfeits his work and the work now belongs to me. It is my copyright. The law protects me now, not him. I legally can say and do what I want with it.

I am not talking about buying the authors book. That is still his copyright. I am talking about him giving up his copyright which is the case with these services. They write you work that is original and agree to give it up to you. They can no longer have rights to it.

As for ethics, ethics are subjective and varies between cultures and environments. What is unethical to you, is ethical to someone else and visa versa.

Half of Europe probably plagiarises: search for papers/essays in your own language, then translate them to English :P

@eno You are wrong about the copyright laws, regarding paintings and other artwork. Most artists, own the copywrite to their paintings or sculptures, even if they’ve sold them to you. So that means, that you are not able to do certain things with the painting, such as altering it, destroying it, selling it to certain other entities, calling it your own work, or making copies of it. There are laws specifically for artists and art works.

You can read a little bit about that Here and more about it Here and Here

You also can’t buy a book from Amazon, like the autobiography of Ben Franklin, and claim, legally, that you wrote it, or that you own the copyright.

Ok, but I’m talking about selling the copyright, not just the work itself. When you use these services, they sell you the work and the copyright to their work. It is in their contract. Also, we’re talking about text which falls under “patents”. So technically, they don’t even have to put it in the contract because they didn’t patent their work, so whether they put it in their contract or not, is irrelevant. This is fresh work.

As for Ben Franklin, I covered this in the answer above….

I am not talking about buying the authors book. That is still his copyright. I am talking about him giving up his copyright which is the case with these services. They write you work that is original and agree to give it up to you. They can no longer have rights to it.

@eno You still didn’t write the papers, yourself, though. It’s still plagiarism, because you are trying to pass off the papers you purchased, that were written by someone else, as your own writing and ideas. They’re not, by any stretch of the imagination.

Even if you buy a copyright, so that you can make copies or sell the documents, you still cannot claim that you wrote the papers. If you try to do that, it is still plagiarism and fraud. I’m pretty sure most universities would expel you for doing that. Why don’t you check the policy of the university. If you are so sure that what you are doing is OK, then you won’t mind going and talking to the Dean and letting him or her know what you’ve done. They’ll give you an answer too, regarding that particular school.

Not sure what you are missing here.

This is where we just disagree. My answer is the same as before. When I purchase the copyright, it is no longer plagiarism. I can claim this work to be mine now (even though we both know it is not) and legally, I am now its author. There is nothing in the law that doesn’t let me claim it as my own after I purchase the copyright. The original author is out of the picture.

The authors hired by these services know they’re giving up their work. They don’t care. They just need the extra money.

As for the University, I don’t have to ask them or tell them anything. There is no requirement to do as such. I just have to do my homework and pass my tests. That is all that is required.

@eno You can disagree until you are blue in the avatar – it doesn’t make your statements factual. Good luck with your future endeavours.

That was very deep. Cheers, same to you.

@eno You are wrong about plagiarism too. It doesn’t matter whether or not you “bought” the copyright (which you didn’t) Just because some company, or some guy, said they were selling you the copyright, does not mean that you actually own the copyright. You have to go through legal means to acquire that. But even if you did own the copyright on those papers, if you don’t site the actual author, which is not you, you are plagiarizing.

This is the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of Plagiarism it doesn’t matter whether or not you bought the copyright, it is the fact that you are passing the writing off as your own. If you cited the real author, then it would not be plagiarism, but in either case, it’s still cheating and fraud.

You’re right, you don’t have to tell the University anything, but if you really want to know what their policy is regarding plagiarism, fraud and cheating, then you should not be afraid to go and ask the Dean. I think the reason that you don’t want to do that, is because you know you are plagiarizing, cheating and committing fraud and you are afraid of the consequences.

On the other hand, if the University does find out what you’ve done, whether you told them or not, they can still expel you, whether or not you believe that you are committing plagiarism, cheating or fraud.

The worst part about all of this is that by avoiding writing the papers yourself, you did not learn the material. And it means that you are lazy and manipulative. There are lots of lazy manipulative people in our world. Nobody likes or respects them.

Well, like I said, we’re just going in circles now. I think you’re wrong, you think I am wrong. We covered this already. I know what the definition is and I know what the law is. I consulted a lawyer about this already. I graduated already. I have my degree. I have my job. I’m on the right side of the law.

I didn’t have to learn the material since it wasn’t necessary for my major. I did, however, learn the material that was necessary for my major. I had to take the midterms, finals. No services are possible there. Just hard work. Clearly, I know my stuff since I aced it.

What you call manipulation, I call legal avenues. What you call lazy, I call intelligent. Work smart, not hard.

So, if you already knew and did all of that why did you ask us?

To squeeze you into admitting that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

You didn’t ask the question @eno.

Did too. Scroll up.

@eno By purchasing you become the owner, not the author. You cannot seriously believe that buying anything makes you it’s creator. I don’t think any of us actually believe that you really think that.
I looked into buying these papers in more detail. On every single website I visited there is a disclaimer that these papers are to be used to “serve as an example for your own work.” Now, none of us believe that either, but that relieves them of liability. As far as copyrights, they don’t have copyrights.
Every college class syllabus, from online schools to community college to university to doctorate programs, EVERY syllabus states that cheating is not tolerated, plagiarism is punishable up to being expelled. Who cares if you used someone else’s papers. What is irritating the other jellies is you being so adamant that what you are doing is legal. If it’s legal, why the disclaimers on the sites selling papers, and why the direct mention of it on every class syllabus?
If I were you I’d keep my mouth shut and move on. Attached is an article I mentioned previously about having your degree stripped from you, sometimes YEARS after being granted. The #1 reason for stripping a degree is plagiarism.

http://www.usnews.com/education/top-world-universities/articles/2012/05/02/10-high-profile-people-whose-degrees-were-revoked

And as far as art goes, I have been a Fine Art Consultant for several years. NO artist ever relinquishes the rights to his work. Ever. You may own it, but he can still reproduce it as he sees fit, and if you claim to be the creator you will definitely feel the effects of your misguided judgement.

So – if it is all so kosher and aboveboard, write a letter to the university that gave you your degree and tell them about how you owned the copyright to the papers others wrote. If you’re so sure you are in the right, give the university who are the ones who make the policy whatever the law says the information about your cheating.

I only got to reading the second post on this thread, which made me chuckle that @filmfann now has more GAs than @GloPro – made me laugh it did!

Erm, yes, no…err, no plagiarism is not good, it’s just plain rude ;-)

@GloPro

Buying the copyright, not just the product itself. Don’t confuse the two. In case of the services, I already pointed out that there is no copyright which means there is no copyright to infringe upon. Hence, nothing is illegal here. Its fresh, custom work. Therefore, there is no copyright They produce original work or quote other authors in their research paper and create the bibliography.

They make the disclaimer for their own protection. Meaning that they might have an author who ends up plagiarizing (the illegal way). The authors might get lazy and not produce original work, so the service protects itself.

I have no comment on art. This is karadmons thing.

@janbb

Circles, jan, circles.

@eno I don’t disagree that buying or using the paper is legal. My question for you, if you consulted your lawyer, is if it is legal to obtain a degree using someone else’s work. I honestly don’t know that answer. Being illegal and being against University policy are not necessarily the same thing.
I think that’s why the websites have disclaimers. To relieve themselves from the liability of aiding someone in obtaining a degree under false pretenses.

Do you honestly think, and I’m just asking, not accusing, that because you purchased it you authored it? You just believe it is OK to say that you authored it, right? Do you see how saying that may rile some people up?

Like I said, I wrote a few papers for friends for cash. I think your outsourcing for your job is a pretty clever idea. I don’t agree with some of the things you have said, and whether I agree with how severe it is or not, I do find turning in papers that you put no work into is unethical. Would I do it again? After this big long conversation, I don’t know…

The US Military Academy at West Point, NY has an honor code which states that “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” The Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD; the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, CO, and the Coast Guard Academy at New London, CT have similar honor codes. Cadets at these schools live and die (in an academic sense) by these codes. An “honor code violation” upheld in a student court is grounds for outright dismissal. Most schools, workplaces and professional organizations at least pay lip service to honor; it used to be much more in vogue than it seems to be today. (And small wonder, considering those we frequently choose to “lead” us.)

In a strict legal sense, plagiarizing is a taking of someone else’s work and passing it off as one’s own. If the work is true, honest and worthwhile, then it has value – so it’s not a “theft of no value” – and the writer or performer should receive the credit that you’re appropriating. So it is certainly a theft. In the case of a paid writer or performer, then it may not be an equivalent to “theft” (except insofar as the writer still receives no credit), but it is still cheating, even if you are the one who is (for the time being) the only one being cheated – of an education. Anyone who later relies upon your diploma to represent an achievement of educational attainment is then cheated, because you will not have attained the education. (When you start writing your own papers then perhaps you’ll start to realize to some extent how much wider your education becomes than simply “the words you put on the paper”, since the process of doing the research, taking and organizing notes, marshaling thoughts and arguments, positing arguments against your position and dispelling them in the work, and finally the writing, editing and proofreading process itself – deciding what to put in and what to leave out – is your education.)

I’ve written many papers while in school, and I can promise you that though I can hardly recall a single topic on which I’ve written, I have certainly learned how to write! (By the same token, I know how to listen and how to read, too.)

If you’re buying your papers, you’re receiving none of the benefit of having researched and written them. The writing on the paper in that case is equivalent to buying a used paperback at a thrift store if you haven’t gone through the process of writing it. If that’s all that your education is worth to you, then heaven help us all.

Fortunately for us, you’ll eventually be found out, discredited and thoroughly humiliated. Let’s hope it happens before you start a family, so that they don’t have to be dragged down with you. Let’s also hope it happens before you’re elected to the Senate.

As for the subcontracting of work overseas or to any others, there is nothing wrong with that if it’s known and agreed-upon with your employer. Some work involves confidential and proprietary information that your employer may not want to have circling the globe to persons over whom it has no direct control or knowledge of who is seeing the information – and where else is it going?

It just hit me. @eno is Rand Paul trying to make sense of people’s reactions to his plagiarism.

@GloPro

I’ll find out.

Yes, I honestly feel that once I own the copyright, I can claim I authored it. I do not see why that might rile people up, no.

I have colleagues who happen to have similar contracts as I and yet they choose not to outsource because they think it is unethical. Why? Their reason is because they feel the owner made an ignorant/naive mistake on the contract regarding outsourcing, and that he really wants us to do the work, not some company in India. So what did they achieve with this ethical stance? Nothing. In fact, they’re working their ass off, spending most of their time with work, and are unable to save the thousands of dollars a year if they outsourced. In my opinion, they’re just as dumb as the boss. The boss should have thoroughly read the contract before signing. That is my answer to my colleagues.

@CWOTUS

Not cheating.

Found out? I don’t think you understand how hard it is to find out and how difficult it is to prove or how wide spread and actively used these services really are.

The contract signatures are our mutual agreement. It isn’t my problem if the boss signed an agreement without realizing the outsourcing loophole he put in there. I was just as surprised as anyone would be. Most employers would save guard themselves against this as a standard.

@glacial

Cool story.

Passing others ideas off as your own is unethical, pure and simple. As for legality, it all depends on who gets to the patentcopyright office first, but as the state of Florida proves, the law isn’t always ethical.

Note that open-source software and similar projects either explicitly relinquish any/all claims, or more often ask for credit where credit is due,negating claiming it for your own entirely. In that, Apple ran into issues on OS X due to it’s strong roots in BSD… and the courts nailed them on it.

@eno My guess is that if your boss knew he could get the same work for less you would all be out of jobs. I’d keep mum about that, too. If you have a mutually signed contract with a loophole that benefits you, so be it.

“Yes, I honestly feel that once I own the copyright, I can claim I authored it. I do not see why that might rile people up” Because it’s a lie. Liars always rile people up.

@eno Owning a copyright does not give you the legal right to claim authorship. That is one of the untransferable parts of an author’s rights. You can read more here, but the short version is as follows.

The author of a creative work gets two kinds of rights upon creating something: economic rights and moral rights. The economic rights, which include the benefits of copyright, are transferable and allow the author to make a living doing creative work. The moral rights, which include the right to be recognized as the author of the creative work, cannot be transferred, are typically permanent, and allow the author to be recognized for their work regardless of its profitability.

But in the case of the services that offer to do school work for you, there is no copyright at all.

@eno That is not actually the case. Copyright applies at the moment of creation, regardless of whether the work is registered or not. Because it is work for hire, the copyright is considered to be transferred to the buyer when the work is handed over. Still, there is a copyright involved.

Plagiarism, however, is not about copyright. It is about the author’s moral rights—which, again, are not transferrable—and about the student’s dishonesty. Regardless of whether or not the student owns the work in question, it very clearly fails to meet the standards demanded by academic rigor.

How so? It wasn’t patented? Thus not protected?

@eno Patents are a separate sort of intellectual property than copyrights. Patents must be applied for, but copyrights need not be. They are automatic. In any case, plagiarism is not about copyright (as I said above).

Of course it’s cheating if work is assigned in an educational institution and you subcontract it, @eno. That’s the very essence of scholastic cheating. It’s “not doing the work”. Doing the work is what gets you an education; it’s how an education is earned and achieved and what makes the certificate or diploma worth a damn. It’s proof that “you can do this type of work”.

And it doesn’t matter how difficult or easy it is to detect in such-and-such a way and by such-and-such a time. It will nearly always be detected and usually sooner rather than later. Maybe not scholastically; your professor may not have an “aha!” moment and point a shaking finger at you to cast you from the institution. Nothing so dramatic. It may just be your first or second employer realizing that your claims to certain educational achievements are bunk, because you really can’t reason, write or compute your way through what should be elementary requirements of the job.

Like a president who claims to have been a professor of constitutional law, for example, yet is always amazed by what the requirements and restrictions of the US Constitution really mean. When you’re found to be a fraud at that level, it will be embarrassing to your honorable supporters, even if you don’t have the honor, conscience or sense of shame to be ashamed on your own behalf.

Well, that was a bit loaded there.

@SavoirFaire Plagiarism, however, is not about copyright. It is about the author’s moral rights—which, again, are not transferrable

So why, according to the legal description, Courts recognize acts of plagiarism as violations of Copyright law, specifically as the theft of another person’s Intellectual Property

So as you said, the copyright is transferred over when the work is transferred to the buyer which means there was no violation of copyright.

@eno Plagiarism is not illegal. However, some—probably most—acts of plagiarism also violate copyright law. Thus why courts will frequently recognize acts of plagiarism as violations of copyright law. In those cases where copyright is not an issue because the content in question was created as a work for hire, however, there could still be an act of plagiarism. As such, wherever you got that legal description from is not as precise as it perhaps should have been.

@CWOTUS Why ruin a perfectly good answer by loading it—as @janbb correctly noted—with such a silly political agenda? President Obama did not merely claim to be a professor of constitutional law—he was one. He was a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and taught constitutional law from 1992 to 2004. And in ordinary English, that’s all it takes to be a professor of constitutional law. And as for what the requirements and restrictions of the US Constitution really mean, anyone of even moderate intelligence and political awareness knows that this is a subject of debate on which no single person’s reading is dispositive. Don’t embarrass yourself by feigning such a woeful ignorance.

Then you’re taking me back to my original point. If I am not violating copyright law because of work for hire, then I am not violating University policy to not plagiarize?

@eno That does not follow. Plagiarism is not about copyright. You can plagiarize without violating anyone’s copyright. Similarly, copyright is not about plagiarism. You can violate someone’s copyright without plagiarizing. However, there are certain cases where the two overlap. Think of it in terms of a Venn diagram.

So what are you saying in regards to using this service as an aid to attain a degree? That it is plagiarism but does not violate copyright laws?

@eno Yes, most likely. So long as the work is created for hire, there should be no violation of copyright law. But it would still be plagiarism, and it would still violate the original writer’s non-transferrable moral rights to claim authorship of whatever is obtained this way.

@SavoirFaire you have been a great addition to the conversation. I do ask that you expound on the detail of being given permission to use the work… As is implied by purchase, and any violations?
@eno I appreciate your tenacity
I’m bowing out but this has been enlightening and fun!

@GloPro If you are given permission to use the work by the copyright holder, then there is no violation of copyright law (though make sure to have some proof of this permission if you don’t want to be liable to a lawsuit). It could still be plagiarism, however, as plagiarism is not about copyright. If one of my students buys a paper from someone over the internet, it is no defense against a charge of plagiarism that he had permission from the paper’s author to use it. What matters in that case is that he did not have permission from me, his instructor, to submit someone else’s work as if it were his own.

(I hope this answers your question. If not, please feel free to ask again about whichever details I may have missed.)

Thanks for clearing so much of this up, @SavoirFaire. One last question for you: is it legal to obtain a degree using such false pretenses? I understand it is unethical, and most likely a clear violation of school policy. But is it legal?

It’s good for an automatic “F” and a ticket to go visit Student Judicial Affairs if you do it in one of my classes. A trip to SJA has been known to hold up a student’s graduation for as long as two years. The moral? Do your own work and don’t cheat.

I think it comes down to your word and what you stand for. If you tell someone you’ll do something can they really count on you? If you’re going to pass someone’s work as your own, your word is worthless, as are you. I need someone I can count on as a standup person all the time. If I let someone cover my back they better be a standup person or my ass is hanging in the breeze. And no one wants to see that.

@GloPro

It is tricky. Under U.S law, it isn’t illegal if someone does homework for someone else, however, under U.S law, it is illegal if someone takes classes and tests for someone else. It is called “scheming to defraud” , “impersonation” and maybe even “falsifying records”.

So these types of services only do homework for you, or as the service puts it in the disclaimer “we give you samples to help you do your homework”. (this is legal under U.S law), but they will not take classes and tests for you (illegal). You’re expected to take the classes and pass the tests on your own.

But as it relates to University policy, they don’t allow any form of plagiarism, period, so even if you take the class and pass the tests on your own, if they find out someone else has been doing your homework, you get suspended, expelled, or whatever the policy is.

This is what I get for going to bed last night.

@nebule If it makes any difference, I have given @GloPro a GA on every answer he posted here.

you are awesome @filmfann Seriously!! xxxxx love love love xx

@filmfann I think you may be off on the gender. Just a thought.

Hahaha, for some reason that song “who’s got the biggest… Balls of them all?” is playing in my head…
I’m new here… Picture me as you wish. I’m sure it will come out in good time.

Oh god, now I’m thinking of you with balls. Hep me please. (L dropped)

The New York Times has done it.

So it must be good…

^ Cute. Can’t remember anyone who was caught in a plagiarism scandal, so just names a newspaper. Want us to do your homework for you? Was it Jayson Blair, the ex-Times reporter, by any chance? And what exactly makes the “must be good” make any sense?

The must be good is obviously sarcasm.

NYT indeed.

Second Gulf War: The Allies make progress? Can’t find a report anywhere.

Something bad happens? Splashed all over the front page.

Fuck you New York Times.

^ You might want to look up the definition of plagiarism.

I know what plagiarism is.

You might want to look up the definition of bias.

@SecondHandStoke: “You might want to look up the definition of bias.”

And I would do that in a thread about plagiarism because….....?

Seriously, what the fuck?

What the hell you two talking about??!!

Stone babies. Freaky.

^^^ Plagiarized.

^^^Because forum threads, like conversations progress and expand.

@SecondHandStoke: “Because forum threads, like conversations progress and expand.”

They sure can. But simply inserting an unrelated topic via a nonsensical comment that in no way related to the original topic? Let me try….

Plagiarism? What about the issue of access to clean water in poor nations?

It depends on your moral values. It’s better, as for me, to reffer the author than simply copy the text.