Plagiarism laws: What do they really protect?

Alphonce Odhiambo , 2016.

One of the most difficult things to do in academic circles,
whether in a college, university, high school or even at work is
writing a research paper. A good paper, I presume, proceeds
from the basis that the writer does not own the information he or
she needs for the exercise of writing the intended paper. It is
quite a difficult practice to undertake and whenever it seems
easy then something always is so wrong. To write one paper, it
may require the reading of loads on top of loads of books for
information. From one voluminous book, one may only manage
to come up with a paragraph or two of useful information to include in his or her research paper.
If at all one is doing it right, it will most certainly be difficult.
So many renowned writers, respected orators, award winning script writers as well as giants in
the field of academia have since fallen short of what it takes to produce some original work.
People so blessed with brains, accompanied by distinctive academic titles such as doctorate,
professorship and masters of a particular field of knowledge have been accused of passing off
other persons work as their own. It may be such a surprise to know that Shakespeare who is so
well known for writing so many books including the Merchant Venice actually plagiarized most
of his plot from Holinshed.1 The most admired civil rights activist Martin Luther King Junior

Stephen moss, A history of plagiarism( not my own work) (2 005) The guardian <
file:///F:/chapter%20two/New%20folder%20(2)/New%20folder%20(2)/today/New%20folder/plagiarism%20laws/A

plagiarized part of the chapters of his doctoral thesis.2 George Harrison also successfully sued for
plagiarizing the chiffons.3 Jayson Blair, a reporter for the New York Times found to have
plagiarized many of his articles.4 An award winning writer, Graham Swift also plagiarized his
book from As I Lay Dying, a novel written by William Faulkner in 1930.5 Last in my list is the
admired orator, Professor Patrick Lumumba being accused of plagiarizing part of his paper;
From Jurisprudence to Poliprudence from an earlier written work done by Wachira Maina.6
The above mentioned names got me thinking and questioning what plagiarism laws are really
about. From my understanding, plagiarism is the knowing or unknowing passing off of anyones
ideas, research or opinions as ones own.7 It can also be defined to mean using someones ideas
and passing them off as your own; writing a sentence one reads from a book, cutting and pasting
something from a website and not referencing.8 Professor Stephanie morrow sums it all up as
follows;
If you use another person's work and do not attribute that work to the author, including copying text verbatim,
paraphrasing a phrase or summarizing an idea, you are essentially committing plagiarism.9

When talking of plagiarism one may wonder what the rules and laws governing plagiarism aim
to protect. Is it the content of ones work of the manner in which the content is communicated?
%20history%20of%20plagiarism%20(not%20my%20own%20work)%20_%20Books%20_%20The%20Guardian.htm
> at 15 august 2016.
2
ibid
3
ibid
4
ibid
5
ibid
6
Wachira Maina, Professors Lumumbas From Jurisprudence to Poliprudence: The Kenyan Presidential Election
Petition 2013 is an egregious piece of academic theft (2015) 13/14 THE PLATFORM p 50.
7
Dr Steve Rawle, lecturer in film and TV production.
8
Sarah Crabbe, Head of programme MA leading innovation and change.
9
Stephanie morrow, Plagiarism: What is it exactly? 2009 (Stephanie morrow is a college professor).
<https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/plagiarism-what-is-it-exactly > at 15 August 2016.

How does one determine and identify the occurrence of acts that amount to plagiarism? Do the
laws regarding plagiarism apply equally to poetry as it does to legal information? Is it about what
I say, how I say it or both? Is it by use of software and machines or by employing the services of
a human reader who goes through the work bit by bit to determine whether or not plagiarism has
actually occurred? Every answer to the above questions is of great importance in the
determination of what one may claim rights over and what he or she may not.
Plagiarism does not stand alone. Furthermore, it isnt actually a word in the English dictionary. It
is derived from the Italian words; plagiarius meaning abductor and plagiare meaning to steal.10
Plagiarism thus means literary theft. It can loosely be translated to mean the unauthorized
copying whether attributed or not and whether intentional or not.11 Plagiarism depends on
intellectual property rights that basically are legal provisions that protect creations of the mind
which have commercial value.12 They create exclusive rights to the creators on the use of and
access to those particular creations by third parties.13 Specifically, plagiarism falls under the
copyright law which is a branch of intellectual property rights.14 Copyright laws come in handy
where the original work is expressed in a tangible or fixed form.15
My argument in this paper is that plagiarism as it is now does not really protect the original work
of creators. They, in my opinion, only serve to protect the manner in which previous writers used
the English language. It checks the sequence of words as opposed to the original ideas upon
which creators can lay reasonable claim. Basing reliance on the strict definition of copyright

10

Supra note 1
Laurie Stearns, Copy Wrong: Plagiarism, Process, Property and Law (1992)80 issue 2 p 522.
12
Moni wekesa et al, Intellectual Property Rights in Kenya p 14 <http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_18323-1522-230.pdf?110214131039 >at 15 August 15, 2016.
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid, p 150.
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laws and what they protect, I believe I have reasonable ground to conclude that plagiarism
checking software is not as accurate in its detection as it is thought to be.
Plagiarism and English as a language
I sometimes ask myself whether there is anyone alive that can claim exclusive rights over a
particular use of English as a language. Can one say I was the first person to use those three
words in the same order so I have ownership over them? For instance, common phrases like I
love you chapter one, chapter two and many others, are they protected? Do the authors of the
numerous novels need authorization from someone before using those words? Do they need to
include citation in their work for that book, paper, or whatever it may be that they are attempting
to produce? I do not know what the answer is to these questions but the sad truth is that
plagiarism checker focuses on similarity in language but not ideas.
Secondly, students who are taught English language by the same teacher and under the same
curriculum have a high chance of constructing sentences the same way. They will observe the
same rules as regards grammar, tenses and so many aspects of English as a subject. I may be
writing a paper about legal subject while someone else that was with me during English lesson
writing a paper on engineering topics but we still end up with certain similarities. Law and
engineering are two very different courses but the use of English remains the same.
I did my own little research by writing a short story without reference to any material. The story
was only one paragraph long consisting of just about seven sentences. When I was done writing,
I placed it in one plagiarism checker after another and in all the applications I used there was a
percentage of plagiarism. This is just to show that all that is checked by these plagiarism
checkers is just language. Unless someone somewhere has exclusive rights over the use of
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English, it should not be considered as plagiarism. One cannot infringe on rights that do not
exist.
Plagiarism and the use of statutes
For every argument in law, there is required proof by use of statutes, case law and academic
publications. When talking about work environment it would be useful to apply provisions of
Acts of Parliament and Conventions relating to Labor Law. One may need to sight parts of
Employment and Labor Relation Act, Industrial Court Act, Labor Institutions Act, the
Employment Act and many others. This is where the issue with plagiarism arises. There are not
so many ways of writing the Constitution of Kenya 2010, in fact, in most cases one has no choice
but to use it exactly as it is. The same applies to the Acts of Parliament. So many other writers
have used them in the past years and the present writes are forced to paraphrase even those
things that need no paraphrasing. This is just one of the reasons why research work will keep
being something to stress over.
Conclusion
Plagiarism is the use of ideas, opinion and thoughts of another person without crediting the
source. For someone to be accused of committing plagiarism, some other person must have
exclusive rights over that material. If no one has claim over whatever is said to have been
reproduced such as the use of English then there is no reasonable explanation as to why it should
be considered as plagiarism.
Secondly, plagiarism checking software do not really check the supposed theft of ones original
work. It checks the sequence of words in several written work which is not really what copyright
laws seek to protect. It would require a human reader to read through the original written work
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and compare it with the alleged plagiarized work before making conclusions as to the occurrence
of plagiarism or not. One has to have an understanding of what the ideas, opinion and thoughts
of the original writer are before confirming or denying their authorized or unauthorized
reproduction.
Plagiarism is one of those creations that are created to serve a very noble purpose like protecting
what is rightfully someones. However, with time it has become more of a problem than a useful
addition because it has side effects. It denies students the freedom to express themselves as they
wish because one always has to worry whether previous writers already used the language the
same way. One has to settle for the remaining ways of paraphrasing sentences which leads to the
end product which may not be particularly satisfying even to the writer herself.