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The article presents the author's opinions regarding the importance of educating students about various issues related to plagiarism and copyright laws. Recently, Kaavya Viswanathan, a student, was accused of plagiarism. Her book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," was inspired by two novels that resonated with her own experience: Megan McCafferty's "Sloppy Firsts," and "Second Helpings." Plagiarism rules are not there just to deter people from copying the literary works of others. They are codes of honor designed to nurture academic integrity by teaching students to honor the voices of others on the way to finding their own. Copyright law cannot be understood without thoughtful reflection, because it contains many contradictions. Copyright protection is not supposed to extend to facts, ideas, or general plot lines, yet the copyright laws tell people that the right to create derivative works--for example, a movie from a novel--belongs exclusively to the author. Trying to define the scope of fair use can be a difficult task.

Focuses on the decision of publishers of academic journals and scholarly articles to use specialized software to determine instances of plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Development of the program Self-Plagiarism Detection Tool that can find academics who republish portions of their work; Information on the plagiarism-detection program being tested at the Cornell University in New York on Arxiv, an online archive of articles in physics, mathematics and computer science.

Reports on the results of the investigation into the case filed against William W. Meissner, a professor of theology at the Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts for allegedly plagiarizing passages from a book similar to the subject of his book "The Ethical Dimension of Psychoanalysis: A Dialogue." Action taken by Ernest Wallwork upon his discovery of the similarities between his book "Psychoanalysis and Ethics," and the book of Meissner; Reaction of Meissner to the accusation.

Comments on issues on plagiarism. Definition of plagiarism; Opinion of scholars on plagiarism; Legal implications of plagiarism.

Provides information on plagiarism. Definition; Varieties; Legal implications.

Deals with the charges of plagiarism against historian Stephen E. Ambrose. Evidence for the plagiarism charges; Apology issued by Ambrose; Reaction of readers to the chargers.