“You can avoid allegations of plagiarism through awareness and honest effort” - Harris Cooper 

Why do students plagiarize? Well, students plagiarize mostly because of their desire to get high grades, their lack of time, and their sheer laziness. In general, when we think of it, when students plagiarize, it only impacts themselves. They could be suspended, probated, or even expelled. But when we look into a bigger issue, plagiarism impacts a lot of areas, especially the academic society, which includes the students, the school, previous research, and even the credibility of the author itself (Weber, 2022). In my opinion, students should stop plagiarizing, not just for their own good but for the good of others, especially those academic societies.

Let us take, for example, a student who knows the impacts and consequences of plagiarism on himself but still continues to do so. Imagine the impact of it on the school or organization the student belongs to. Even though the school would punish and discipline the student, the damage to the school's reputation and system is already done. Imagine what the general public will think about the school because their students are plagiarizing and, in a sense, stealing. At the end of the day, even if it is the students' fault, the school is still responsible for its students.

Moreover, another reason is that plagiarism by students also impacts scientific journals or research in general. This is because this type of research produces highly credible and valuable pieces of information that are commonly used for innovation. So when students plagiarize or directly copy data from these studies, it leaves marks and a bad record on the paper. In a sense, it looks like when students plagiarize, it disrespects the value and importance of the research and the paper itself.

Finally, taking everything into consideration, plagiarism by students could even impact the credibility and authority of the author itself. Not only did it disrespect the rights and work of the author, but it also violated the author’s credibility and uniqueness as a writer (The Ten Consequences of Plagiarism – Responsable Academia, n.d.). This is because you can imagine how much time and effort the author put into creating those papers and how quickly they were copied and used by others. Additionally, it would also impact the author’s future rights since it already had a dent from being plagiarized.

Some may argue about how plagiarism affects others when it is clearly the student's fault. Well, even if it were the fault of the student, we could not avoid the fact that schools are responsible for their students, and it reflects on how those schools nourish their students. Basically, even if it is our fault, it does not mean that everyone around us is unaffected because, as the saying goes, "taking one action changes everything."

To conclude, the mere thought of plagiarism is unpleasant and disrespectful in general. It does not just affect students' abilities and careers; rather, it is much bigger and wider than that. This heinous act has a significant impact on the people and organizations around it. So my message to students is to "stop it, get some help." It is important to ask for help if we are having a hard time. Because remember, all our actions affect not only us but also those around us. 

“One can say it's human nature to take the easier route, and in this case, that route is plagiarism.”

With the rise of the internet came easy methods for gathering information, which students with web access took advantage of, easily committing plagiarism and passing off information as their own. The question is, "Does the internet make plagiarism more difficult to address?" This might be true, but in contrast, it has also become vital in detecting unoriginal works, and overall, the internet has had a more positive impact on this issue.

Before the internet, plagiarism was not as easy, as students who committed it spent more time going through countless books just to find an article they could copy. However, with the internet's influence, perpetrating this act became easier because of sites like JSTOR and EBSCO, which contain countless academic papers done by others. Students now had easy access to information about the topics of their papers, which they could copy, paste, and pass off as their own. Creating original works takes more effort, and the ease of getting high marks from plagiarism entices students to do it. One can say it's human nature to take the easier route, and in this case, that route is plagiarism. To complicate matters, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter promote and spread plagiarism even further because they give incentives to even unskilled writers to pass off others' works as their own in order to gain recognition and praise from others.

On the other hand, with advances in web-based software that can find out whether a piece of text is plagiarized, the detection of stolen works has become just as easy. There are lots of easily accessible dedicated sites like Grammarly and Duplichecker that have plagiarism detection services that not only compare a written work with millions of documents online to check for similarities but also do this in a simple and quick manner. Similarly, school-based apps like Google Docs, Google Classroom, and Turnitin now also have dedicated plagiarism checkers to ensure a student's academic honesty. These can prevent students from submitting copied works because of how effortless it is now to prove whether or not their work is original. Even papers with thousands of words can be easily checked and verified to determine whether or not they are plagiarized, making online papers submitted by students more valid and reliable.

Even before the internet, plagiarism has been a constant problem in our society. Even students in the past still committed plagiarism. The internet simply made this act easier to perform and spread to others. Of course, this is a negative, and we can assume that it definitely had an influence on the rise of plagiarism, yet the internet has also given us a way to detect plagiarism in a way that was never seen before. In the past, it would usually take hours for even the greatest of experts to find out whether or not a work was plagiarized due to how long it would take to compare and determine it with other academic papers. However, with the presence of the internet, this is now a process that can be reliably done in a matter of seconds by anyone, even those who aren’t too adept at doing this, which is why overall the internet has a more positive impact on the problem of plagiarism.

“After some time passed in studying – and even imitating – the works of others, I would recommend the student to endeavor to be original, and to remember that originality should not be undiscovered plagiarism.” - Henry Peach Robinson

Plagiarism is the act of passing off another person’s work as their own. Due to the likelihood of people committing the act of plagiarism, by accident, or intentionally, multiple laws have been created to make sure that the public places absolute importance on making sure that one’s outputs do not mistakenly steal another person’s findings. Multiple advisories have been written by the government to inform the public about the definition of plagiarism in their eyes. What is considered as plagiarism, and when does it become a crime, are all available to the public.

According to the Department of Justice’s Advisory on Plagiarism, plagiarism should be avoided, regardless of the presence of sanctions against it. Under the Cybercrime Prevention Act, signed by former President Benigno S. Aquino in September. 12, 2012, plagiarism is, “punishable as a crime if it was committed with deliberate intent and amounts to copyright infringement under the IPC.” Plagiarism is directly related to copyright infringement, for, in the words of the Intellectual Property Code, “plagiarism does not in itself result in a criminal violation, unless it also constitutes copyright infringement under the IPC.” 

Copyright infringement is when a person passes off another person’s work that's still under the protection of a Copyright, as their own. With a term of protection of fifty years after the Copyright owner’s death, one wouldn't be liable for plagiarism if they claimed the dead owner’s work as their own after the Copyright has expired. A situation wherein one would be liable for Copyright infringement would be, in the words of the Department of Justice, “If a person, however, incorporates an entire chapter of a more recent historical work into a new book without the permission of the copyright holder , the person is not guilty of plagiarism if he or she cites the source. But the person does infringe on the original author's copyright, whether or not the wronged author is properly credited.” According to Jonathan Bailey, Plagiarism, along with Copyright infringement, “ carries a penalty of 3-6 years imprisonment and a fine of P50,000 - P150,000 ($1,200 - $3,600), if prosecuted under the law.” (2012)

Plagiarism can be avoided by only deriving one’s product from the works of others, and nothing more. The Department of Justice released a statement regarding this, and it states that, “The fact that an author anchors his/her work on the work of another does not mean that the laws will provide him/her less protection. Transforming pre-existing works in a meaningful manner requires the same level of originality, creativity and critical thought which the IP Code equally recognizes as worthy of copyright protection.“