Internet Plagiarism

While, reading the article “Understanding Internet Plagiarism,” by Rebecca Moore Howard it dawned on me how much of a textual revolution it is. Many people before the internet used big reference books from the library, which I have to say I still use to this day. I think there is just so much more substance to those books than the internet. In addition I know those big books are authentic. The internet today everyone has access to, and can just publish any kind of non sense. They can publish something and then claim that they are an expert of that subject. Moreover, there are even web sites that you can buy papers off of. That is just absolutely crazy to me. Basically anyone can get their hands on something with money. “Money talks”

I also have a problem with Internet Plagiarism because so many people today can write down their feelings and publish it. With this many people publishing, it is a good chance that a few people are going to have the same ideas. Perhaps you did not see a certain site, but someone else can stumble upon it and think that you got that idea from that person. I do not like that idea what so ever. I feel with the internet the way it is today, it makes me scared to write at times. The reason is because I never know was this someone else’s idea?

In addition with softwares given to teachers where they can type in a sentence, and see if it is plagiarized. It makes me really nervous. I would never plagiarize anyone ones work. I would never even think of doing so, however, ever time I go to write a paper I get worried about will the professor find it to be plagiarized? Perhaps I cited it incorrrectly? or maybe this is someone else’s idea that I do not know about? This makes you second guess your own work.

 

oh crud! the reading response!

How’s this for irony? As I am writing (typing?) this reading response on internet plagiarism, I am watching a bootleg copy of the documentary Jesus Camp on a streaming website. It is totally free and totally illegal. In theory, internet plagiarism is wrong and shouldn’t happen. In reality, it is going to. With every innovation there is a downfall, and the internet’s downfall is the fact that with all of that information, it is easy to grab at somebody else’s thoughts. The same goes for online streaming: we shouldn’t be “stealing” these artists’ songs or movies, but I know the majority of the people reading this have software like Limewire or Napster. My personal poison is fanpop.com where you can search by your interests for hundreds of videos.

Slightly switching gears, Howard also mentions turnitin.com; a site that has caused me nothing but pain and agony. In high school many of my teachers relied on turnitin.com as a way to weed out plagarism. Instead she got 80% of the papers back with a plagarism rate of 35% or more. The thing I loathe about plagarism sites is that they compare your paper with other papers in their database (which you become a part of when you “turn in” your paper). These papers aren’t published nor are they a part of pay-for-your paper sites. I guess those folks at turnitin don’t realize that many high school students share similar views and ideas on certain subjects.

Great minds think alike, supposedly, yet nowadays if you think alike you are penalized for it. Yes, one should be concerned if something is identical to another published paper without citing it, but if one paper shares common ideas or views with another article or paper that they probably would’ve never come across, don’t automatically wave the plagiarism flag.