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Plagiarism in Canada: Laws, Consequences and Solution

What Is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is unethical as it is an act of stealing intellectual properties. Nowadays, the global scenario of publication is undergoing a rapid change. Many writers prefer to publish their work on online platforms. It is leading to an increased case of plagiarism. Canada is a country where plagiarism and copyright infringement are strictly prohibited and for the right reason.

Plagiarism affects both the original writer and the content creator. Suppose the readers find out the presence of plagiarism in any content, diminishing the content creator’s credibility. For this reason, the writers should try to stay away from plagiarism.

Like many other countries, Plagiarism in Canada is taken seriously. Canada has strict laws to protect the right of the original authors on their works. The writers can use a plagiarism checker tool to stay away from plagiarism.

Types of Plagiarism

There are different types of plagiarism; it can be intentional or unintentional. The content creators can copy, paste the whole writing, and use it under their name. Often, the writers and students change parts of a sentence with synonymous words and use the rest of the work as it is, without crediting the original author.

This sort of plagiarism is called mosaic plagiarism. Sometimes, the students or content creators can also paraphrase another writer’s work and use them without citing their work source. It’s also a sort of plagiarism.

Plagiarism can be unintentional; the students or freelance writers may misquote or use a particular part without citation while substantiating their argument. This failure of citation is also plagiarism. To avoid duplicated content in their works, the writers must use a plagiarism detection tool.

What Are the Laws Governing Plagiarism in Canada?

To prevent Plagiarism, Canada has strict laws. The Copyright Act in Canada was first passed in 1921, followed by two amendments in 1988 and 1997. The copyright law in Canada grants the original author with the right to create and recreate their work.

Any copying if the act that violates the author’s right on the work is copyright infringement. The original writer can seek legal aid to protect his/her right on the work based on this act’s provisions.

The copyright act protects all “original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic” works. According to the law, the original author of writing has the exclusive right to recreate, produce, reproduce, and perform in public. The writers also have the right to convert a dramatic work in novel and non-dramatic form.

In Canadian Admiral Corp. vs. Rediffusion, the court has stated that:

“For the copyright to exist in a ‘work,’ it must be expressed to some extent at least in some material form, capable of identification and having a more or less permanent endurance.”

Section 12 of the “Copyright Act” in Canada reserves the copyright. Copyright violation leads to punishments for all works that are “produced or published by or under the direction or control of Her Majesty or any government department.” This sort of copyright is valid for 50 years from the end of the year of creation.

What Is the Punishment for Plagiarism in Canada?

According to section 35(1) of the Copyright Act in Canada, different sums are paid as a fine. If the writer is not earning any financial profit or harming the original author financially, the sum lies between $100 and $5000.

In the case of commercial infringement, the compensation money must be $500-$20,000. For copyright infringement dealing with the rental or sale of any copyrighted work, the fine can be extended to $1,000,000 or prison sentences up to 2 years.

In the case of summary conviction, the penalty can be $25000, and the court can give the person a prison sentence of 6 months.

Suppose a student commits plagiarism in their papers. In that case, the institution can take steps against the student based on their academic policies. They take it as a threat to their academic integrity.

In higher education, the institute takes plagiarism seriously. They can give the student a failing grade for academic dishonesty. Thus, harming the student’s academic record and, in the process, can harm the student’s career.

If bloggers and content creators use plagiarised content in their work, they may have to face legal issues. Besides that, they may end up losing their readers as any complaint of plagiarism makes the readers question the credibility of the content creator.

Search Engines like Google, try to improvise their customer service and take the issue of copied content seriously. They can remove the website or the blog from the search results if there is any plagiarised content present in their writing.

The content creator may end up losing traffic due to this. For business blogs, it harms the overall image of the organization.

How to Stay Safe and Avoid Plagiarism Using the Copyleaks Plagiarism Checker?

For freelance writers and students, it is essential to create original content. If they are using parts or lines from any other work, they must properly cite the article’s source. If the works are appropriately cited, they can avoid the charges, provided they are using paraphrased contents, with correct citation.

To prevent all forms of plagiarism, the writers and students must use a plagiarism detection tool. For best results, they can use the Copyleaks Plagiarism checker.

It scans the contents thoroughly and compares it with other existing articles to determine the copied parts present in work. They generate an accurate and detailed result with the percent plagiarism.

The students of colleges and universities can do proper citations for their works as a reference. Copyleaks also highlights the copied parts so that the students or writers can work on those segments. It helps them stay away from plagiarism.

As stated earlier, Canada is not a place where plagiarizing a document and then going out with it is easy. So, it’s better to avoid it.

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