Randolph High School Media Center: Copyright Laws

As one of a series of district goals adopted in October 1988, the Randolph Township Board of Education stated that students should “acquire an understanding of ethical principles and values, and the ability to apply them.” This process assumes students will be honest in their academic work. Cheating, falsifying research or stealing the words or ideas of another damages the educational process.

In its brochure “Academic Honesty: Misconduct – Stop and Think,” Ohio University defines plagiarism as “the presentation of the ideas or the writing of someone else as one’s own work.” It includes the following:

• Reproducing another person’s work, whether published or unpublished. (This includes using materials form companies that sell research papers.)
• Submitting as your own any academic exercise (written work, homework, computer printout) prepared totally or in part by another.
• Allowing another person to alter or revise your work substantially and submitting it as your own
• Using another’s written ideas or words without properly acknowledging the source. If a student uses the words of someone else, he or she must put quotation marks around the passage and add indication of its origin, such as a footnote. Simply changing a word or two while leaving the organization and content substantially intact and failing to cite the source is plagiarism.
• Failure to acknowledge study aids constitutes plagiarism.
• Sources like Cliff Notes should not be used unless otherwise instructed.

  If a student is unsure about a question of plagiarism or cheating, he or she is obliged to consult his or her teacher on the matter before submitting the material.

  To get a more detailed explanation of copyright laws, access the following copyright resources on the Internet:
  
  1. U.S. Copyright Office detailing U.S. copyright laws
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright
  http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
  
  
  2.Reproduction of copyrighted works by librarians and educators from Library of Congress
  http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ21.pdf
  
  
  3. Timeline- A History of Copyright in the U.S. from the Association of Research Libraries
  http://arl.cni.org/info/frn/copy/timeline.html