Plagiarism on the internet is not only about copied text: photos, videos, music, graphics, designs, and code are passed off as someone else's own work every day. The fix is simple: link to the original source, ask for permission, or use content that is free to use.
How to avoid plagiarism looks at plagiarism in general and at how to avoid copying someone else's work by accident in a thesis or another academic or scientific paper. But schoolwork is not the only place where plagiarism happens almost daily.
Nothing has made it as easy to copy other people's work and ideas as the internet. And it isn't only the written word that is copied and pasted into a website or a blog article. It goes much further: images, music, videos, sketches, graphics, whole designs, and code can be saved, copied, or imitated in seconds.
On the other hand, it has never been as easy to link to the original source, artist, or producer. A source link credits the original author and tells readers where good content came from. It also helps them spot bad content, because they can see when the link leads to a questionable source. Readers can then decide for themselves whether they trust it.
Yet many people still present photos, artwork, or videos as their own, when a proper source link would take only a moment to add.
Common forms of plagiarism online
Some forms of plagiarism are very common on the internet:
- Posting pictures from other websites on your own page or blog
- Using video footage for fan, tribute, or music videos
- Using copyrighted music in your videos
- Posting videos or images found on the web on your social media profiles
- Using photographs or images to create website designs, banners, social media headers, and so on
However, the lines tend to blur, especially on social media. Is a tribute to a famous music video or movie scene plagiarism? What about copying the composition and color scheme of an existing graphic for your own?
It helps to know that plagiarism and copyright infringement are related, but not the same. Plagiarism means passing off someone else's work as your own, and giving credit avoids it. Copyright infringement means using a protected work without permission, and a credit alone does not always make that use allowed.
Many people draw the line at the "value" of the shared, or plagiarized, content. Others draw it between personal and commercial use of videos and pictures. You can always look up a country's copyright law (for example, the United States Copyright Act), but the internet is an international playground, and copyright law differs from country to country.
Be on the safe side
When it isn't entirely clear whether something counts as plagiarism, especially on social media and for private use, giving credit to the original source is a matter of decency and respect. Sometimes you can't find a source, for example for a picture from a search engine or one you found on your hard drive. A reverse image search can often help. Even if you find nothing, that doesn't mean you should claim the picture as your own or, in the worst case, put your own watermark on it.
If you know the source, take a few seconds to credit the original artist. Many websites also have share buttons that post the content from the source directly to your social media profiles or send it by email. When you share content that way, everyone who sees it on your profile can see where it came from.
If you want to use someone else's photograph, image, video footage, or quotation, you can also ask them for permission. A quick email or message costs nothing and takes very little time.
Finally, plenty of content on the internet is free to use. Works in the public domain can be used freely, and works under a Creative Commons license can be used, shared, and often changed, as long as you follow the license's conditions, which usually include naming the author. How to name a source properly in a text is explained in citations: how to do them properly.