Publishing issue #3 Copyright issue

The use of internet has made the life of many easy, we could basically search any information that we want and it will appear onto our desktop almost instantly. Yet, the information available for public use on the internet is numerous. It causes the problem of online plagiarism whereby other take credits for other’s work.

The article titled ‘Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use’ by Pichon featured on Editorsweblog.org published on June 22 2011 highlights the issue of copyrighted materials being used by others. The repost of article without the author’s consent causes Righthaven, company that specializes in copyright litigation sue Wayne Hoehn, user of medjacksports.com for using their material. Although, Righthaven claims that such action leads to the loss of hits to their website. Yet, Righthaven does not have enough stakes to bring the case to court.

According to Waxer (2005) copyrighted materials are permitted to use in a fair manner. However, there are still those who copy works of others entirely without giving credits to the creator. There are many efforts being made to improve such situation by the government to prevent further content being stolen. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (2007) mentions that embedding digital marks is one of the best measurements that creators could take to prevent information theft.  

Furthermore, it is important for journalists to ensure their content is not taken from other source. Posner (2007) states that the code of ethics prevents journalist to take other’s work credit for themselves in information publishing. However, it worries readers and also creators as mentioned in the article, plagiarism standards have now been lowered. News editor overlook minor plagiarism as works that are taken from others is done fast.

Being efficient does not give us any excuses to take other’s work without consent. It is unethical to take credit for other’s hard work while what we did was merely copy and paste just to ensure we get the job right. However, there are appropriate ways to use other’s material in publishing. As Fishman (2011) states that by getting extension license, users are able to make further copies of the original work.

Reference list

1. Waxer, B 2005, Internet Surf and Turf-Revealed: The Essential Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Finding, Media Course Technology, USA
2. International Organization for Standardization 2007, Copyright, standards and the internet, viewed on 12th November 2011, <http://www.iso.org/iso/copyright_information_brochure.pdf>
3. Posner, R 2007, The little book of plagiarism, Pantheon Books, USA
4. Fishman, S 2011, The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs to Know, NOLO, USA
5. Pichon, F 2011, Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use, viewed on 12th November 2011, <http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2011/06/copyrighted_material_fair_and_unfair_use.php>