Plagiarism VS Copyright Infringement

It is known that to copy other people work is a wrongdoing. It is known as plagiarism in academic world. Sometimes there is lawsuit filed to those who have done copyright infringement. However, our lecturer said it is alright as long the original author are given credit. Who is right ?

To really understand the situation, you have to understand the word plagiarism and copyright infringement. A definition from www.plagiarismchecker.com to explain the differences of this two word :

Plagiarism : is using someone else's work without giving proper credit - a failure to cite properly. School enforce plagiarism.

Copyright infringement : is using someone else's creative work, which can include a song, a video, a movie clip, a piece of visual art, a photograph, and other creative works, without authorization or compensation. The court enforce copyright infringement.

To further explain the differences , i may copied a non-copyrighted work (ancient literature work from Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare, and etc...) as the author is long dead. Copyright infringement doesn't work on me . However if I did not credit the author properly, I may failed in assignments.

As for copyright infringement, I copied a copyrighted work without gaining permission from the owner. Despite I given credit to the original author , I still liable for copyright infringement. This happens when "Harry Potter" Author Wins Copyright Claim reported in CBS news.

(Source: Photobucket.com)

When Steven Vander Ark, the owner of Harry Potter Lexicon Website has copied J.K Rowling work. Despite the Lexicon Website has stated that the information created is based on Harry Potter book. However, Steven did not gain permission from Rowling for publishing purpose. Thus, Steven may faced a court order to close down his website.

In conclusion, although reading is a good hobby. Reader tend to use their schemata (prior knowledge) to interpret meaning from a text. This schema theory ( Putnis & Petelin, 1996) where reader interpret text and construct their meaning based on prior knowledege,and background knowledge. Steven used Harry Potter as basis of his work as many people have known Harry Potter. However, Steven has to be more careful on creating his work as he might face another copyright infringement.

Reference

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, "Professional: Principles and Applications: Writing to Communicate", pp 230

Plagiarismchecker.com 2006, "Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement: Is Copying Illegal?", Viewed 5 June 2009,


CBS News 2oo8, "Harry Potter" Author Wins Copyright Claim", Viewed 5 June 2009,