Should plagiarism be forgiven?

By Vanessa (Age 14, St. Paul's Convent)

Do you know teachers always make students put a "credits" page in their presentations? It's because if they don't, then they're basically committing a crime. Since students find most of their information from the internet, it is essential that they must credit someone or something for it.

When a person commits plagiarism, not only are they going against copyright laws and human rights, but they are also disrespecting the person whom they are stealing from. Here's an example: what do you feel when you discover that someone, some jerk, took credit for something you worked really hard for? That essay which took up your whole weekend and made you miss your best friend's birthday, the very essay that you knew would score you an A, that exact piece of writing that you thought would mark as the perfect end of your school life... there is no doubt that you'll feel ripped off, furious, enraged, mad, irritated, murderous... You'll want to torture him like there's no tomorrow and throw him into the depths of hell. Every ill thought possible to man will likely fill your thoughts until you can get your revenge. Sadly, although plagiarism isn't something that people welcome, that doesn't prevent them from committing it.

Most people commit plagiarism because they have run out of ideas. They desperately need to ace something, but lack the ability and creativity, so they resort to copying other people. Nonetheless, one should never mix plagiarism with inspiration, imitation, or influence. The previous three are cases when one incoporates someone else's idea into a whole new thing. Plagiarism is when a person claims someone's idea as theirs, which is basically taking credit for what isn't rightfully theirs. In Tobias Wolff's novel, Old School, the main character stole a girl's story, called it his own, and submitted the story for a competition. He won the competition, but was then expelled when the school discovered what he did. Similar to lying, there are consequences for plagiarism. Nothing good comes from copying someone's idea, not even if you credit them, because the content inside isn't yours. Just like a snowball effect, you'll have to copy more and more until one day, the fragile structure of your lie gives in and everything crumbles.

Although plagiarism is bad, it is actually happening everywhere, even in the smallest places. Take the Maxim breakfast that I'm currently having as an example. It's a set with deep-fried fish fillet, scrambled eggs, a piece of bread, and a drink. Originally, the same set was available only at Fairwood. However, as it became an instant hit, the set was then copied by Cafe de Coral and Maxim. Despite the fact that everyone commits plagiarism, it does not mean that it should be accepted or copied. You won't go jump off the roof just because everyone does that, would you? No matter how one looks at it, plagiarism isn't a thing that should be easily overlooked or forgiven.

So, when should a plagiarist be forgiven for his or her mistake? The situation depends entirely on them. If they are willing to repent and turn over a new leaf, people should respect and trust them again. However, only people who are willing to admit their mistakes and change have the right to earn respect, because if they continue to do wrong or don't even bother to forgive themselves, how can they expect other people to forgive them?

Plagiarism

By Phillip (Age 14.5, Island School)

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Many people plagiarize for various reasons, whether it's because they feel they don't have the ability to do something original, or simply because they're not bothered. It can range from very small things like copying a math problem off a friend, or to copying someone's business idea like Mark Zuckerberg, when he allegedly copied the initial idea of Facebook from ConnectU. However, in the end, Mark Zuckerberg was more successful, since he was better at executing the idea.

If I was at university and I came up with an idea for a brilliant Internet business and my friend copied my idea and started making a website, I think I'd ask him for credit since he stole the idea from me. However, I wouldn't be very mad because if you put it this way, everyone is plagiarizing. For instance, Steve Jobs mentored the founder of Google, a successful search engine business, and in the end, Google ended up copying Apple's iPhone business and launched the Android system. Although Steve Jobs expressed disappointment and stated, "We did not enter the search engine business, so why did Google enter the smartphone business?", in some ways, Apple gained a competitor. And since iPhones are usually a little ahead of the Androids, Apple made even more money by analyzing the Android's faults and making it even better.

Also, plagiarizing can only be restricted up to a certain extent, and sometimes you can't even tell if they plagiarized or not. If people did not plagiarize and always came up with original ideas, the world wouldn't be as developed as it is now because people always add onto ideas and make it better. If it was totally against the law to take someone's idea and use it, then everything would stay at the most primitive stage of its development and not be able to advance any further.

Maybe it could be that I can re-plagiarize the plagiarized idea and make it even better, and get another friend who is really good at computers to develop a website better than the one that the other friend made, and become a competitor. It might even be better because that means I'll be having two brains behind the operation instead of one, but in a subtler way, since the friend who copied my idea would only really have copied the basis of it. The friend would still have to think on his own in order to keep the business running.

And instead of only looking at the negative side, I might even be able to look at the positive side and become partners with my friend and work on it together. Since I had come up with the initial idea, it will likely be that I know more about the business idea than my friend does, so maybe I could come up with ideas and my friend can work on it. I might not have been able to execute the idea without a computer whiz in the first place, so it might have even been a good thing that my friend plagiarized, because he would have practically volunteered to work on my idea.

Plagiarism is generally viewed as a bad thing, but in some cases it might even be a good thing. You might even be able to work with the people who plagiarized your work, because each person has their strengths and weaknesses. And also, if people are only restricted to coming up with original ideas, then the world wouldn't develop, and instead people would have a hard time trying to think of ideas.