What Is The Price Of Plagiarism?

“A lot of students in their early education do not get a very good grounding from their instructors about when it’s acceptable to use somebody else’s material,” says Jane Kirtley, who teaches Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota. “There’s also a sense among students today that if it’s something they can find on the Internet, then by definition, they can use it freely without attributing it to anybody.”

The Internet provides plenty of temptations for would-be plagiarists, from essay-writing services to millions of Web pages. The easy availability of such resources can cloud judgment and lead to misuse or abuse of information. “On the part of students, there’s an eerie logic to justify cheating,” says Denise Pope, a lecturer at the School of Education at Stanford University and author. “It’s three o’clock in the morning, you’re exhausted, you’ve worked hard … rather than getting a zero, you’d take your chances with plagiarism.” —What Is The Price Of Plagiarism? (CBS News)

Forwarded to me by John Spurlock.