Think about it this way, do you want to spend hours, days, even weeks or years of your life working on a project just to have some high school kid come along and use your ideas without giving you credit for them? Probably no more than you want to give your homework to the weird kid next to you when he says he was out too late to finish his. That is why you need to cite all of your sources. Those books, articles, and websites are someone's hard work and they are very proud of their work; you need to give them the credit they deserve.
So, maybe the question really is why don't you cite? It seems that most people simply don't take the time to think about it. However, now that you are aware of the situation and have learned how it really is pretty simple to cite your work, telling your readers where you got your ideas should be just as easy as telling your friend what store your cute new shoes came from. It's all about giving credit to the source.
There have been numerous court cases of people, even famous and respected people, who have plagiarized. Find a famous case of plagiarism and summarize the events of the case. Be sure you are using good research strategies and only utilizing information from credible sources rather than gossip colums and other such sources.
Once you have done that find the DMCA. Explain in detail what it is. Then, answer the following question in an organized and thought-provoking manner: Describe the impact you feel technology has on plagiarism.
Created by Gayle Taylor
Last Updated August 8, 2007