WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PLAGIARISM AND COPYRIGHT?

INTRODUCTION TO PLAGIARISM AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT

Plagiarism occurs when a person uses work or idea of someone without give him due attribution or credit. This can result from either by way of copying of original texts, idea or even expression without giving due credit. We need to understand that although Plagiarism is not illegal but certainly it’s considered as an unethical practice. It tends to lower the credibility of the person who is involved in such act.

Some Examples:

1.      Non-Attribution: When the words of a particular book, article, blog, script is copied as it is without mentioning the source.

2.      Not Citing: Various works are quoted and being used by the person. But such person does not mention the sources referred.

3.      Money paid: Purchasing a paper and publishing it as your original work.

4.      Paraphrasing: Merely paraphrasing someone else’s original work would constitute as Plagiarism.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGNMET: Copyright is given in the original works of the author ranging from literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, sound recording etc. The work must be in a fixed tangible form These authors are considered to be original authors of the work and therefore possess exclusive rights in the work like selling, distribution, reproducing the work, importing, exporting etc. What not constitute copyright infringement is if the work amounts to fair use such as teaching, research, reporting of facts etc.

Examples:

1.      Non-Assignment: The work was not assigned by the owner to the 3^rd party and still the 3^rd party was using it for distribution purposes. This will constitute copyright infringement. A publishing house published books without proper assignment.

2.      Copying without permission: If unauthorized copying is done. For example, say a song is downloaded in illegal manner and is being used for commercial purpose

3.      License not obtained: Copyrighted works can be used if a proper license is obtained from the owner. But for example, if say a TV channel starts broadcasting a match without having the broadcaster rights or license, it would amount to copyright infringement.

In Super Cassettes Industries Limited v Youtube and Google (2016), the argument of Supercasttes was the platforms like YouTube and google earned huge amount of profits by projecting cinematographic films in whom rights vest in Super cassettes.  The court passed order restraining youtube and google from reproducing, transmitting etc. such works.

MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLAGIARISM AND COPYRIGHT INFRIGNMENT

1.      Definition aspect

·         Plagiarism: Use of someone else work or idea without proper reference to the creator of the work. Focuses on giving credit to original person.

·         Copyright infringement: Unauthorized reproduction, selling, distribution of the protected copyrighted work.

2.      Legal Consequences:

·         Plagiarism: It is basically a ethical issue and generally there is no legal consequences. At the most it results into low credibility of the person involved in such act or say lesser grades or termination if done in an office setup. For example, a student using various articles in his research paper and publish it without mentioning the source of these articles which he incorporated in his research paper. This might have no legal consequences but it may result in lowering of grade for such student upon being found that the content is plagiarised.

·         Copyright Infringement: It has both civil as well as criminal consequences. If the work is copyrighted and unauthorized use of such work is done, the owner can avail following civil remedies such damages, injunction, accounts of profit. Further, the person found liable for such infringing activities may be subjected to criminal punishment such as imprisonment and fines.

3.      Scope

·         Plagiarism: It can be of any work whether the work is copyrighted or not.

·         Copyright Infringement: It occurs when copyrighted work such as literary, musical etc. is being used without permission.

4.      Intention

·         Plagiarism: It requires intentional misuse i.e. someone is misrepresenting someone else work as his own either by not citing it or say paraphrasing it.

·         Copyright Infringement:  It does not require intention and if the work of original author or owner as the case maybe is being used without permission, it would amount to copyright infringement.

SITUATIONS INVOLVING COPYRIGHT INFRINGNEMNT AND PLAGIARISM

·         Plagiarism but not Copyright Infringement:

An employee working in a firm prepared a presentation using an article sited in website of competitor site. The employee failed to cite the relevant source. This will constitute plagiarism as there was failure to give proper attribution but this will not come under copyright infringement as the work was not published for public use.

·         Copyright Infringement but not Plagiarism

The employee copies the entire code of the rival company but attributes the person who created that code. This is not plagiarism but it will come under the ambit of Literary work i.e. the software code. Because the exclusive right over that code selling, etc. rest with the owner company.

·         Plagiarism and copyright infringement in One:

An author says ‘B’ wrote a book and copies substantial portion of the original non –fiction book.

Plagiarism – The author ‘B’ did not give attribution the original author and therefore it constituted as plagiarism.

Copyright infringement – The author ‘B’ copied substantial portion of the original literary work without authorization, thereby infringed original author copyright.

INDIAN LAWS RELATED TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGNMENT AND PLAGIARISM

·         Plagiarism: There is no specific laws to regulated plagiarism because it basically relates to ethical issue. It may constitute misconduct in academic or professional setups. Plagiarism relates to attribution and therefore it may find place in Section 57 of Indian Copyright Act which deals with moral rights of authors of the work. It basically means giving due credit to the authors for their works.

·         Copyright Infringement:  There are specific laws to regulate copyright infringement both in India as well as foreign jurisdictions. In India section 51 of the Copyright Act,1957 deals with scenarios when an act is said to be infringing copyright. For example, any person without licensee granted by copyright owner does any act for which exclusive rights vest with owner, it will constitute copyright infringement.

RECENT CASE LAW: ANI v PTI (2024): Although, the decision has not yet come in this case but since in involved both the issues of copyright infringement and plagiarism it becomes imperative to mention it. In this case suit was filed by ANI against PTI for illegally producing its video which was shot by ANI journalist on a flight. It mentions that interview on flight took considerable time and passengers were made to wait. PTI illegally produced same video and thus copyright infringement suit was filed against PTI seeking 2 crores for alleged plagiarism

CONCLUSION

The concepts of Plagiarism and copyright infringement might seem to be same but both have some nuanced differences. The focus of Plagiarism revolves around give due credit to the person who made that work. It basically gives acknowledgement for your hard work and efforts. On other hand, copyright infringement focuses on the right vested in that works, which can be of author and owner. The issue of Plagiarism is not dealt in a very strict manner and therefore there is less creativity among the students and employees. There are not any strict guidelines to regulate plagiarism and hence the originality of the work is lost. Therefore, certain ethical practices should be inculcated in students when it comes to Plagiarism or even use of copyrighted work and focus must be on creativity and originality.