Copyright and Plagiarism

By Joseph Dempsey, Michael Bluman, Brian Blaszak, and Sheila Sampson

IN expanding the use of technology in the classroom, teachers can give students more exciting and effective means of learning, but they may also face issues of copyright infringement and plagiarism. The following websites provide information on how students obtain material to plagiarize, on detecting plagiarism, on how to prevent plagiarism in the classroom, and on current copyright laws.

Sources of Material That Can Be Plagiarized

http://sparknotes.com
This free informational website features resources such as novel summaries, character analyses, online texts, and review questions for English as well as other subjects.

http://pinkmonkey.com
This website sells study guides, chapter summaries, study tips, and test preparations and provides partial summaries for preview at no charge.

www.ezwrite.com
This website sells papers on a variety of topics without a subscription. The site claims that 97% of the papers available for sale include references.

www.ivyessays.com
This website offers sample essays and the services of admission counselors and professors who will review and revise admission essays for various rates. It also lists tips for writing college admission essays, selecting a topic, researching a school, and proofreading. It also features humorous mistakes.

www.hotessays.com
This website has 50,000 papers available to subscribers and offers custom-written papers for a fee.

www.netessays.net
This website provides access to a database of 100,000 term papers and essays for a subscription fee. The site carries a disclaimer stating that papers are available for reference and research purposes only.

www.24houressays.com
This website sells various essays, reports, and papers purportedly written by college professors.

Resources for Teachers: Copyright and Preventing or Detecting Plagiarism

www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml
The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use from Education World offers teachers comprehensive guidelines for the proper use of preexisting materials in their teaching. The text stresses the application of fair use and includes many links for more detailed information and resources.

www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/distance.htm
Copyright Law in Cyberspace, by Georgia Harper of the University of Texas, is a complete online workshop in outline form with plenty of links for more in-depth information.

http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~charlan/internetpirating/softpiracy.html
This colorful website explains the problem of computer piracy, including a brief history, description, and methods for prevention. The site contains several links to legal and other resources.

www.ncusd203.org/central/html/where/plagiarism_stoppers.html
Plagiarism Stoppers is a guide with links to various websites that can help teachers detect plagiarism in student work. Links include websites featuring detection tips, prevention training, and sources students may be using to find material to plagiarize.

www.turnitin.com
This subscriber service helps educators and others to deter plagiarism in student work. It operates like a search engine that checks for matches with billions of pages' worth of material on the Internet. The service is available for a free trial, and the site also includes information on the latest issues related to plagiarism.

www.plagiarized.com/index.shtml
A resource guide that defines plagiarism and offers detection tips for educators to use when examining student work. The website features training in plagiarism detection, advice for educators and parents, articles, FAQs, and links to other websites.

www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
This website offers strategies for preventing plagiarism. It addresses how to be aware of cheating and includes information about plagiarism for students and teachers, tips on prevention, and links to other websites.

www.plagiarism.com/self.detect.htm
This website checks written work for potential plagiarism at no charge. The program is intended to make writers aware of their own writing styles and identifies any text that they may have inadvertently plagiarized.

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