Copyright Information

Plagiarism and copyright infringement are, although different, somewhat related. Plagiarism is mostly associated with copying someone's written work and presenting it as own creation, whereby it may also be applied to music. In music, for instance, plagiarism is when someone rips off someone else's melody and changes it insignificantly to mask up the violation. It may constitute copyright infringement, but sometimes the dividing line is blurred or overlapping and not distinctive. Plagiarism is nowadays very much perpetrated on the Internet, where many people copy other people's content and paste it onto their own web sites, or pass them as their own work in form of articles. Plagiarism happens very much on community boards, where less crafty wordsmiths "borrow" other people's wisdom and try to look good in the community of their choice. Such plagiarism happens because the person is needy of validation, or perhaps feels under peer pressure to produce materials worthy of noticing. Copyright infringement is serious crime and is punishable by law. Some copyright violations have even felony status, while plagiarism, because it is often without financial gain, passes unpunished, or the person responsible for it is caught and chastised by the community. Nevertheless, every year during the European Song Contest, we witness dozens of plagiarism violations, where perpetrators are noted by the listeners and the broad public, but no actions are taken by the damaged parties. The reasons for such behavior are unknown. Plagiarism happens very much in schools and on universities, where students use any reference they can get their hands on, in order to provide required written work, mostly plagiarizing existing content, barely masking it good enough to pass undetected. The distinction between plagiarism and copyright infringement may not be that important for the person committing the crime, but for the prosecuting body and for the subsequent punishment definition it is vital. If someone plagiarized a song by someone else and has a multi platinum hit in the charts, it is vital to note that the complaining party can get relief not only for the act of plagiarism, but also for the copyright that was infringed upon. To explain this statement, let's observe a real life case. In 1994, Michael Bolton, a singer and songwriter, was found guilty of infringing on the copyright of the Isley Brothers' song with his release "Love Is a Wonderful Thing". While he felt that he merely plagiarized parts of the song, the copyright infringement decision cost him, his co-writer and their record company, Sony Music Entertainment five and a half million dollars.