Giving credit for an open work satisfies the open-copyright license’s legal requirement that the writer acknowledges the work’s author. Citations are made for restricted works where the copyright holder does not grant public access to the copy. If the work is not attributed properly, it can be marked as plagiarized, which will result in a legal action against the writer. Oxford dictionary defines plagiarism as using someone else’s ideas, with or without their consent, by incorporating them into your work without full acknowledgement (2022). Not mentioning the original source or author of something is actually considered illegal. However, this notion does not cover social media plagiarism. It became so popular for people to take a copy of any written post and post it as their own. They either claim it is theirs or simply write “Copied” (Think Marketing Magazine, 2021). Thus, in order to avoid being accused of plagiarism, creators repost social media posts and leave the original creator’s name attached.
Luckily, my work has never been plagiarised, to my knowledge. If it ever was, I would feel devastated and angry. Someone else would use my work and ideas that I have spent much time developing and simple show them as their own. I do not think that it is ethical that someone else would get credited for using my work. Thus, plagiarism is not only a legal question but as well an ethical one.
References
Oxford Dictionary (2022). “Plagiarism”. University of Oxford. Web.
Think Marketing Magazine (2021). “Social Media plagiarism: Does it exist? And how to avoid it?” Think Marketing Magazine. Web.