Copyrights and Contexts

Plagiarism is not illegal, but copyright infringement is, and laws concerning copyright have evolved to favor the rights of content creators at the expense of those who might wish to make use of or transform this work. The use of copyrighted material is allowed under limited circumstances known as fair use. These include exceptions for parody and using work for educational purposes. However, there are gray areas, and this chapter describes a couple of these. One is fan fiction, in which writers make use of the characters and worlds created by published authors. Some authors encourage this, while others deplore it. Another is cookbooks, since lists of ingredients or procedures can’t be copyrighted. The chapter also includes three domains in which plagiarism seems to be rampant. One is the content of commencement addresses. Many speakers at graduation ceremonies have used the speeches of others, incorrectly believing they were free for the taking. Another is music that employs short samples from earlier, copyrighted songs. And contests that require the creation of new music for competitions – such as the annual Eurovision contest – seem tailor-made for plagiarism to occur.