Introduction
Plagiarism is considered a global problem of contemporary science and education as well as in the spheres of literature and music. In educational institutions, students frequently confuse plagiarism and citation. Thus, plagiarism can be not intentional, although stealing other people’s work cannot be justified. Moreover, plagiarizing hurts the person’s reputation and lead to legal or monetary repercussions (“6 consequences of plagiarism,” n.d.). Despite many interventions aimed at the detection and prevention of plagiarism, such as plagiarism detection software, it is still frequent among different people including scholars, students, journalists, authors, and other professionals. Thus, there is a need to review plagiarism in different spheres and determine its possible consequences.
Plagiarism in Art
Plagiarism cases in art and media are not so frequent as in education, but usually, they attract more attention to society and also can lead to court. For example, Ed Sheeran was accused of “willful copyright infringement” for one of his hit songs, which was initially recorded by an Australian country musician (Moran, 2018, para. 4). The estimated profit that Sheeran received from the illegal use of the song reached five million US dollars. Another case of plagiarism, which was in the news, involves guitarist Joe Satriani accusing Coldplay of copying his instrumental and presenting it as their creation (Michaels, 2009).
However, the opponents managed to achieve an agreement and came to the out-of-court settlement. Coldplay was supposed to pay Satriani off after this settlement. One more case that attracted public attention involved Led Zeppelin and the rock band Spirit (Baker, 2016). The band claimed that the Zeppelin songwriters took the opening cords of their tune. Still, the income this song earned was safeguarded by a Los Angeles jury. On the whole, the mentioned cases are examples of legal and financial consequences of plagiarism.
Plagiarism in Education and Science
Colleges, universities, and research institutions give significant attention to the issue of plagiarism. For example, Academic Senate Policy on Academic Honesty (UCI, 2008) states that “university is an institution of learning, research, and scholarship predicated on the existence of an environment of honesty and integrity,” and “cheating, forgery, dishonest conduct, plagiarism, and collusion in dishonest activities erode the University’s educational, research, and social roles” devaluating the learning experience (p. 1). There are cases when plagiarizing deprives students of an opportunity to get the education because they are expelled from educational institutions.
Thus, Ebert (2008) reported that a student from Ohio University together with another student had to leave the ship during their “Semester at Sea” program because the professor suspected them of plagiarism in their papers. Another disturbing practice is to pay someone for writing a paper. Marshall (2013) claims that there is an opportunity to order not only student essays but also a Ph.D. dissertation, and it is just the question of money. One more unacceptable way of plagiarizing is taking students’ works by professors and including them as parts of their works without mentioning the authors.
Consequences of Plagiarism
Plagiarism can have personal, professional, legal, or ethical consequences. The cases of plagiarism are easily detected with the help of specific software., which is available both for institutions and private individuals (“6 consequences of plagiarism,” n.d.). The proven cases or even suspicion of plagiarism ruin the reputation of a student, professional, or academic. The worst consequences can include the loss of a position or expulsion in case the plagiarizer is a student. Also, legal and monetary repercussions are possible. The violation of copyright legislation is considered a crime and can lead to a legal case against the plagiarizer. As a rule, they result in granting monetary restitution to the author. Thus, in addition to the lost reputation, plagiarizers lose part of their income.
Conclusion
Summarizing, it should be said that plagiarism is one of the common mistakes that can cost a person money as well as the lost opportunities and pride. Sometimes people who take other people’s work do not realize that they can face many problems and plagiarism can be detected. Thus, to avoid being a plagiarizer, a person should cite the source in academic papers and always mention the author in every case somebody’s creation is mentioned.
References
Baker, C. (2016). The price of plagiarism. The Chronicle of Higher education. Web.
Ebert, L. B. (2008). UVa expels plagiarizing OhioU student from ship!. Web.
Marshal, H. (2013). What is the price of plagiarism?. Web.
Michaels, S. (2009). Coldplay plagiarism lawsuit dismissed by judge. The Guardian. Web.
Moran, R. (2018). Ed Sheeran hit with plagiarism lawsuit from Australian songwriters. Web.
6 consequences of plagiarism. (n.d.). Web.
UCI. (2008). Appendix VIII. The UCI academic senate policies on academic honesty. Web.