Plagiarism & Copyright 

Plagiarism occurs whenever someone presents another person’s work, including their ideas, written text, or spoken words, as their own original creation. 

• For specific school requirements, refer to the Wangaratta High School ➥ Academic Integrity Policy

To maintain academic integrity, follow these core principles:

• When to reference / cite: Always provide a reference when you are quoting directly, paraphrasing, summarising, or even just adopting someone else’s words, ideas or concepts.

• The Safety First Rule: If you are ever in doubt about whether a source needs to be referenced, cite it anyway and let your teachers make the final determination.

The National Library of Australia also provides some excellent guidance ➥ National Library of Australia - Plagiarism

Copyright law safeguards original works, including text and images, by granting the creator exclusive rights to their creation and ideas. 

• The Golden Rule: Just because you can copy something on your computer, it does NOT mean you legally can.

• The Safe Harbor: Generally, providing a direct link to or embedding a resource is considered a legal way to share content.

• The Variables: The legality also depends on what is being copied, how much of the work is used, how it is shared, and who the intended audience is.

To ensure you stay within legal boundaries, you can utilise materials released under Creative Commons (CC) licenses. These licenses permit the sharing, re-using, and remixing of content, provided the original author is given appropriate credit. While the specific terms of the six CC licenses vary, such as restrictions on commercial use or derivative works, they all fundamentally require proper attribution.

For those seeking further information, the ➥ National Library of Australia offers extensive resources on this subject. Additionally, you can find detailed breakdowns of these principles through the ➥ Smartcopying guidelines or by exploring the ➥ Creative Commons website.

Click on the images to open the videos.  If it is a ClickView video then you may need to sign into ClickView (@schools.vic.edu.au) to watch it.