Fashion Games

"So what if I copy and paste?"
I`ve seen that question on the forum A LOT.

This shouldn`t be a question. You can`t take what isn`t yours. It`s considered stealing,
whether what you`re stealing is tangible or not. That`s right. Words can be stolen. Words
and ideas are considered intellectual property. Stealing intellectual property is called
plagiarism. Plagiarism is a big word that can ruin your life. For serious. I don`t know
what it`s like in your country, but in Canada, universities don`t want anything to do with
you if you`ve been caught plagiarizing. It`s on your record. Ouch. And if you plagiarize
IN university? Zero tolerance. Plagiarism can also make you lose your job or can prevent
you from even having one. If you make money off of something that was stolen, you can get
fined for several times more than what your profit was. It`s more serious than most people
think. Was that one essay you didn`t want to write even worth THAT much? I highly doubt
it.

Can it really ruin your life if you copy/paste on Roiworld, though? Not necessarily. Like,
it`s not as bad as printing a Wikipedia page and handing it in to your prof, but it`s not
exactly "acceptable" either. And to be quite honest, if you copy and paste a news article
and write "oh so sad" under it, it`s reaaalllllyyyyyy dull. Like mind-numbingly boring. I
can read my news elsewhere. Places where people don`t write "oh so sad" under it.

How do you avoid plagiarizing?

No matter how much you take from someone else, whether it be the entire text or just a
specific idea, you MUST cite your source. I cannot stress enough how important it is to
give credit where it is due. However, on Roiworld, no one is expecting you to write a
detailed bibliography. I, for one, will be perfectly satisfied if I am presented to a link
to where you go your information at the end of your discussion. It`s not that difficult.
If you can copy/paste a text, you can can copy/paste the URL.

- Summarize. It`s not as difficult as some people are making it seem. Most things can be
summarized in about three sentences (give or take. Depending on the original content).
It`s easier to understand, too. And most people prefer reading three sentences to get the
gist of it, and if they`re intrigued, they can go read the real article for themselves. It
takes less time to scroll down to the comments too haha

Does that mean you need to indicate where you got the photo you used in your discussion?
Technically, I suppose you should. Thing is, though, half of us don`t even know where we
get them. And no one claims they`re theirs. Besides, we all know it doesn`t belong to us
unless we state otherwise, correct? I figure that`s just how it works on Roi.
Do we agree on that to some degree?

Do we agree on anything I just said?
Your thoughts. Please share them.

P.S. For more information on plagiarism (because, believe it or not, there`s more to
plagiarism than what I said in that big chunk of text up there), www.plagiarism.org is
worth a visit.