Piracy versus Plagiarism
One of our assigned articles this week touched on an interesting subject when interviewing college students about intellectual property. College students were asked about piracy and music downloads to which many admitted they had downloaded mp3 files to their computers and some admitted to having a whole library of music.
When asked about plagiarism, students immediately said it was wrong and denied partaking of the practice. They mentioned honor codes and the misconduct associated with plagiarism. This was interesting because students knew that piracy was wrong, but they seemed to imply that plagiarism was really, really wrong. So I wondered why they may feel that way? What's the difference?
My opinion is people do not think piracy is as bad as plagiarism because they are only thinking about what they do with the material. If they are not passing it off as their own, with their name on it, or attempting to make a profit from it then they do not see the harm. Plagiarism is much like a lie - you are saying you created something that you did not. Downloading music is not a lie if you are only listening to it. However, each of them have different impacts and consequences.
What are your thoughts? Is plagiarism worse than piracy?
posted by ChangeAgent501 @ 1:22 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Great questions you raise here! My younger siblings think nothing of piracy, but I've always insisted on purchasing my downloads. It seems to be a generational gap, perhaps because I always had to purchase to get a clean copy when I was growing up.
Much as I hate to admit it, I have a double standard as well. To me, plagiarism is lying and cheating but since individuals buy CD's and pay to get into movies, etc. I feel like the creators make their money. While I've never engaged in either, I have not been as forceful as I should and could have been when my teenagers downloaded music from Limewire, The cousin who introduced them to it told them it was ok because everyone was doing it. Not a good argument, I agree, but it seems to make most things ok in the eyes of the world especially since it was for personal pleasure and not being resold for profit.
The academic world's stance also seems to support popular belief. Tools have been created to check assignments and papers for plagiarism and penalties are tough. What has been implemented to stop piracy? I'm sure with all the ingenuity floating around someone can come up with something.
I agree with both of you! It seems like the younger generation seems to think no harm is done if you are not copying and selling it and/or if others are doing it. It's still a copyright issue and plagiarism is similar, but it's interesting the different stigmas that are attached to each. Thanks for commenting!
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