Violation of IPR

Having intellectual property rights is one thing; having them respected is another. The textbook opens this section with a single statement: violation of intellectual property rights may happen in one of the following ways — and then devotes a lettered sub-section to each. The sub-sections that follow …

With the Internet at hand, copying or sharing text, pictures and videos takes only an instant — and that ease is exactly what makes plagiarism so common. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's idea or work as your own idea or work.

The textbook identifies two distinct ways plagiarism happens:

• Copying without attribution — if we copy content from the Internet but do not mention the source or the original creator, that is an act of plagiarism. The copying itself may be technically effortless, but passing the material off as ours is the offence.
• Deriving without acknowledgement — if someone derives an idea or a product from an already existing idea or product, but presents it as a new idea, that too is plagiarism. In other words, plagiarism is not limited to word-for-word copying; repackaging an existing idea as original counts as well.

Plagiarism is a serious ethical offense, and in some situations it is even considered an act of fraud. …

Copyright infringement is using another person's work either without obtaining their permission to use it, or without paying for it, if it is being sold. Where plagiarism is about failing to give credit, copyright infringement is about failing to get the right to use the work at all.

The textbook illustrates this with a common scenario: suppose we download an image from the Internet and use it in our project. If the owner of the image's copyright does not permit its free usage, then using that image is a violation of copyright even if we give a reference to the image in our project. Citing the source does not cure the infringement — permission (or payment, where the work is sold) is what matters.

The key caution the book gives: just because something is on the Internet does not mean it is free to use. Before using a writer's or creator's work, check its copyright status; that is how you avoid copyright infringement.

Trademark infringement is the unauthorised use of someone else's trademark on products and services. A trademark identifies whose product or service the customer is buying, so using another's mark without authorisation misleads the market and violates the owner's rights.

The remedy is legal: the owner of a trademark may commence legal proceedings against anyone who infringes their registered trademark. Together with plagiarism and copyright infringement, this completes the set of intellectual-property violations the chapter describes — plagiarism concerns credit for ideas, copyright c …