1 What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is generally defind as stealing someone's else material and taking acknowledgment  for it, or using the work and not acknowledging the originator.

As a Website owner you need to ensure that you do not  fall foul of plagiarism  as well as checking that your own website material isn't stolen. There are detection software programs available which can check whether work has been reproduced. This software is actually used by many educational establishments to check if students essay and course work has been copied from another documented source !!


As previously mentioned, many cases of plagiarism and copyright infringement arise out of ignorance on the user's part so keep the following in mind..


1) Do not directly copy word for word from any written material, without written permission from the copyright owner.

2) Close paraphrasing of a piece of writing ( where only a few minor words are changed) may be considered plagiarism.

3)Using quotes, statistics or pieces of work without acknowledging the originator or source may result in legal action.


Fair usage of material is generally allowed although to what degree is often contentious. In the first instances, try to gain written permissions from the originator / copyright owner where possible.

If you on your website, acknowledge the originator and source. If in doubt, seek legal advice.

Some may argue that there are only so many ways you can write or present a piece of information - especially  for an instructional or technical article - and that some web copy can be very similar to others. Generally, if you produce a piece of writing and have referred to a variety of sources, this is looked upon as research, but if you copy information from one source,  this is considered as plagiarism. Make sure you do u research well in advance !!