DISCUSS: Plagiarism Plagiarism is the act of claiming language, ideas, opinions,

DISCUSS: Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of claiming language, ideas, opinions, theories, software code, artistic material, or anything else developed by another person without acknowledging that person as the source of the material. Doing this, especially at an academic or professional level, can have dire consequences. We are all made aware of this from the time we start school. However, the issue of giving credit to authors continues to be an issue in both academic and non-academic settings.
Real-life forms of plagiarism include copyright violations. Copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute something such as literary works, music, or artistic works.
Copyright infringement is a form of plagiarism. Copyright infringement is when copyrighted work, such as music, is reproduced without the permission of the owner of the work. Lawsuits involving copyright infringement are seen often in music. Allegations of copyright violations have been made against various artists, including Cardi B., Nicki Minaj, Robin Thicke, The Verve, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X, and Lana Del Ray. These lawsuits ask for large sums of money to be paid for violating copyright (i.e., plagiarism where someone earns money from another’s work or ideas).
One of the most notorious cases of alleged copyright violation occurred in the 1990s, when the band, Queen, and the singer, David Bowie, sued the rapper, Vanilla Ice, for copyright infringement. Queen and Bowie alleged that Vanilla Ice had plagiarized their song, “Pressure” in his 1991 rap, “Ice Ice Baby.” The case was settled by payment of an undisclosed amount by Vanilla Ice to Queen and David Bowie, as well as Queen and Bowie being given songwriter credit for the song “Ice, Ice Baby” due to Vanilla Ice’s obvious copyright infringement. YouTube links are below for you to compare the two songs
“Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie found here (Links to an external site.)
“Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice found here (Links to an external site.)
ernal site.)
The concern of many in the music industry is that copyright infringement has gone too far. The case that has raised this concern is a 2015 case about the song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. The copyright infringement charge brought by the estate of Marvin Gaye alleged that Thicke’s song, “Blurred Lines,” was a copyright violation of Gaye’s 1977 hit, “Got to Give It Up.” While the trial court found for Gaye’s estate, the court acknowledged that the melody, harmony, and rhyme were different. Yet, there were similarities in the sheet music and in the “style” or “vibe” of the songs. A jury award in favor of Gaye’s estate of just over seven million dollars has been upheld by an Appeals Court. YouTube links to the two songs are below if you are interested.
“Blurred Lines” by Robin Thick and Pharrell Williams found here (Links to an external site.)
“Got to Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye found here (Links to an external site.)
Discussion Topic for Week 2
For the discussion post this week, read and consider the TCC Administrative Policy for Academic Dishonesty
Links to an external siteas well as the cases of copyright discussed above. Create a discussion post to answer the following questions:
1. Why do you think plagiarism is still a problem in today’s world (both the academic and non-academic world)? What, if anything, could change to fix it?
2. Are consequences for plagiarism (or copyright violation) a deterrent? Explain your position.
3. Consider Artificial Intelligence (AI) options, such as ChatGPT, and plagiarism. AI is able to respond to a prompt by gathering information from sources, however, most AI programs refuse to explain how they gather data, which means the responses by AI do not cite the materials they use to formulate an answer. Why is this problematic?