Plagiarism

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is fraud, as it’s the act of stealing someone else’s work then taking credit for doing it, and receiving all the praise. People don’t understand the real seriousness of plagiarism and don’t realise how much trouble it involves, it’s actually committing this crime to plagiarise, it’s a lot more than just copying, it’s theft of another persons thoughts of ideas or work, making them a victim. You can use other people’s work as a reference but it has to be credited to that person and made clear it’s not your own work. You can use quotations and even put the text in italics, the more obvious it’s not your own work the better.

There are many different types of plagiarism it’s not always easy it can be a big heated discussion on if something is plagiarised. Being the most obvious offence, if copying word for word and using it as your own work; so when it comes to writing something it’s a good idea to reference your work to show were you have looked and where your thoughts and ideas escalated. Also when you use a research source and solely only use and relying mostly on this, making hardly any alterations to the text, that’s considered another form of plagiarism. And it’s seen as plagiarism when you use a number of different sources but just combine the original text together without containing any of your own words. It would still be classed as another type of plagiarism if you made reference where you found it, and credited the work, When referencing work, you have to include actual evidence as people may show they have used others work and credited it, if don’t show where it’s from and accurate reference or even non-existing this too is plagiarism, its vital you credit all work too not just some as it suggests the work you have not credited, is you passing it off as your own piece of work.

Five main types of plagiarism whether it is unintentional or intentional

·      Plagiarism of words

·      Plagiarism of structure

·      Plagiarism of Ideas

·      Plagiarism of Authorship

·      Plagiarism of self

When it comes to visual plagiarism, it is still a serious crime, even if it was unattended.  But people do get inspiration by other artists and it can be hard to distinct plagiarism due the tends to be a theme/trend for art and it’s constantly changing so it may seem loads of work is the same but it’s just trying to follow the latest look. It would be harder to find if someone had plagiarised someone who was not very well known as they might never be found out or that person can’t afford to take the theft to court. But to produce work in the style of your inspiration icon, is not necessarily plagiarism it is how you go about it, if you trace yes, that’s copying but if you interrupt it into your own style it’s called homage. This is when you take for example work that is so famous for been someone else, nobody would dare try take credit for, so you do your own version, this may look obvious what image you have used to reference but it shouldn’t look the same.

The act itself is actually very common now due to the Internet and social media as it’s easier for others to take and pass off your work as their own, but you may never find out, or ever get justices if it was to happen to you.

Banksy, a famous artist known for his graffiti artwork, what have been featured on bridges and streets all over the world and he did a tribute Andy Warhol when he created a series of portraits of Kate Moss in pose of Warhol’s original Marilyn Monroe.

Banksy (Kate Moss 2005)

 Andy Warhol (Marilyn Diptych 1962)

But Andy Warhol himself has faced with several lawsuits cases as he was taking other photographers work and creating them with his silk-screen method. In the end Andy agreed to give the photographers a portion of the money he received from the designs.

To prevent plagiarism if you are going to use others work for inspiration and reference at least state it or ask permission too first before going ahead with it, also use fresh ideas, as homage is acceptable. Homage is the an already existing piece of work, what most times is so famous and well-known piece of art/work, that you can’t copy it anyway due to people noticing it isn’t your own work.   

There can be a thin line between plagiarism and homage, for example the images below of “Dexter’s Laboratory” a 90’s cartoon and “the Big Bang Theory” a present TV show.  Is this stealing the design or interrupt it? Some can ague for and against, so picking up on plagiarism is never straightforward.

Works Cited

Famous Things, People and Events Famous Cases of Plagiarism , [Online], Available: http://famous101.com/famous-cases-of-plagiarism [7 Oct 2014 ].

Flavorpill Media (2014) Remix Masterrpieces: When other Artists Pay Homage To other Artists, [Online], Available: http://flavorwire.com/192640/homages-in-art [7 Oct 2014].

iParadigms, L. (2014) Plagiarism.org, [Online], Available: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/overview/ [25 Sep 2014].