The Importance of Intellectual Rights Has Increased.
   Developed countries already educate the young correctly. Nevertheless, these days many controversies on celebrity’ plagiarism have become an issue in Korea because of poor copyright education. The problem of intellectual rights is concluded by moral problems. Copyrights means that we must recognize other people’s thought and regard others ideas as an exclusive possession. So plagiarism that steals intellectual property should be regarded as immoral. Also, a law related to intellectual property rights and patent was established because just information itself can have a big influence, unlike in the past. Therefore, to correct viewpoints on intellectual rights which are not only moral a problem but also a legal problem, we should use consistent education like advanced countries. If so, what should we consider to better recognize on intellectual rights?

Many Controversies of Violating Copyrights in Today’s Korea
   Recently, it has become hot issue that former professor Pyo Chang-won’s paper is suspected to be plagiarized. To put it concretely, the main problem is that firstly he violated the rules of quotation, also he misspelled indirect quotes in the place of direct quotes. Thus his paper got the attentions of the masses. However, the most shocking thing is that he accepted his problem with the paper. Actually, a plagiarized paper like this controversy is one of the hot issues that heats up in Korean society since a few years ago. In the same vein we can remember Kim Mi-hwa’s plagiarized paper controversy and Kim Hye-soo’s too. The successive problems of plagiarism in Korea make us wondering about any moral recognition in Korea about plagiarism. Furthermore, these situations demonstrate to us that Koreans understanding of intellectual property rights is very underdeveloped.

What Is the Main Factor of Poor Attitude about Intellectual Property?
   The recent plagiarism controversy of Roy Kim’s song ‘Spring Spring Spring’ has gotten him in big trouble with news paper, letting us know the problem of intellectual property rights appears for many areas. If so, why does this problem frequently showed up? The reasons are various. One of the main reasons is that Korean society isn’t inclined to regard violation of intellectual property as a serious crime. Poor attitude toward copyright in Korea is based on the unscrupulous retreatism that is prevalent in Korea.
   It is like “As everybody takes plagiarism for granted, so do I.” In addition, fundamentally there is little education in Korea about copyright compared to advanced countries which protect intellectual property rights. For example, one of the CNU students who is a freshman says that when he was a high school student, before he entered the university, he understood protection of intellectual property rights to be blurry. It is not only his problem but also his friends and me. If you are a typical Korean student, the circumstances are probably similar. It is really acceptable that most of Korean students have no concept of protecting copyrights. This is because in the regular education course of Korea there are no classes, on even a mention of intellectual rights. And before he entered university, when he wrote report or essay, he always mended data by using the internet indiscriminately. Most Korean students do their homework like that, but nobody feels guilty even we take mending for granted. Teachers don’t care, either. This kind of education could be continued. It is the fundamental reason why Koreans consider copyrights as “everybody takes plagiarism for granted, so do I.”

Actual Conditions on Korean University Student’s Plagiarism Recognition
   Thorough research on plagiarism recognition targeting Korean university students conducted by “albamon” which is job searching site, we can clearly see serious problem with plagiarism recognition among Koreans. However, what we have to consider more seriously is not the things of many students have experience of plagiarism. We must consider more concentrically the actual condition which students don’t even recognize that they are plagiarizing in the first glance. These things show us lack of copyright education in the educational arena. Then how do advanced countries educate about plagiarism?

 

What about Advanced Countries?
   Canada is one of the leading countries that protects intellectual property rights and takes a fine education course that is different from Korea’s. For example, Forest Hill Middle School which is located in Vancouver sends a family reference letter about how to do homework. In that letter, they clarify that the standard of assignment grading is totally creative, and if students copy from internet data so that their assignment has no subjectivity, that essay will get the lowest score. In the same vein, if you plagiarize in America, you’re going to get assignment with full of red lines. Moreover in France, if they plagiarize, the one who copied will get under 4 points out of 20 points as they think that creativity blossoms in integrity. In England, teachers themselves emphasize that each essay needs its own subjectivity. When plagiarism is repeated, Teachers in England even consult with parents. According to the 7 page-7 chapter of the book by Hong Jeon-guk, when the prestigious high school Choate abroad assigns homework essays, every student must indicate annotation or reference sign. If anyone breaks this rule, he or she can be suspended or expelled from school. It is considerably different education from Korea. And as above, students who get fine educations grow up as adults who clarify natural, legitimate annotation or reference signs. Whether educated or ignored in school makes a big difference. Therefore, as we can see examples of leading countries which protect intellectual right, we can see that it is structurally hard to plagiarize because not only do they give awareness on the illegality of plagiarism students, but also they strive to see creativity as the most important element.

 

 

Plagiarizing a Paper and Research Ethics
   Plagiarizing means 'stealing or theft' and is derived from 'plagiarie' which is the Latin word meaning 'stealing'. Plagiarism also has the meaning of that insists the stolen thing to their own thing which steal text and other people's ideas. In terms of stealing the text and thoughts of other people rather than specific stuff, plagiarism means intellectual theft instead of simple theft. In common types of plagiarism are text plagiarism, plagiarism for the original structure of ideas, paraphrasing plagiarism and mosaic plagiarism. To explain about these technical terms, plagiarism is to write sentences without revealing the exact source of information when people use ideas of others or the unique expression.
   Plagiarism is treated as an important issue in terms of research ethics. Research ethics emphasizes researcher's sincere and responsible achievement before starting research. It also refers to the field that includes all discussion about research ethics. The American Historical Association additionally declared that protecting the research ethics is the minimum obligation of the borrower who borrows the lender’s knowledge. Korea also established the Center for Research Ethics Information to raise the ethical level. However, college students actually do not understand about research ethics because the establishment hasn’t been long and the infrastructure for research ethics education is very low. As report conducted by the National Research Foundation of Korea in 2012, shows universities that enforce the research ethics education was 63.7%. Universities which do not enforce education yet are still many and besides, in case of the universities that enforce the research ethics education just implements the sporadic special lecture or workshop rather than in the regular curriculum.
   Stealing others ideas and expressions without permission generates ethical issues as well as legal issues. However, plagiarism is treated as an offensive subject to complain in the area of infringement of copyright. Therefore, plagiarism investigation is impossible unless a victim files a complaint against the plagiarist. In addition to the cause of lack understanding for research ethics, the regulation of law against plagiarism is very insufficient. Even rumor has been prevented that plagiarism is just ‘Seori’ (called mischief, like stealing and eating fruit in Korean). In practice, when essay plagiarism was discovered, the university just took minor disciplinary action such as cancel degree, expulsion, dismissal, or banning paper contribution for a certain period of time. Legal punishment rarely came into action.
   Hence, some within the academy are demanding the law revisions to copyright law. They believe that research ethics could be developed to advanced countries' level by regulation. However, it is the opinion of the majority of academic that plagiarism problem couldn't be resolved completely by regulation. It needs detailed guidelines established and strong punishment against plagiarism. However, inspiring research ethics in the academic world and strengthening the research ethics education must be preceded. Professor Lee Won-yong, a chairman at the Research Ethics Committee of Yonsei University said, “System maintenance has been completed to some degree but, it is a state in which effective research ethics education and recognition of the regulations are insufficient. The government has developed an online education program and also been tried at university. However, it is unknown when and how the effect will happen.”

 

 

Research Ethics Education Is Needed.
   As an extension of system maintenance, it is claimed that strong legal sanctions and a check program for plagiarism at a government level should be implemented. However, skepticism is dominant about its usefulness. In the case of the plagiarism check program, it is difficult to filter out all plagiarism patterns. Most programs execute a search process based on the similarity between papers including the typical check program of English thesis called ‘Turn It In’. However, it exerts a substantial force in a science or engineering paper which is mainly comprised of experiment data. It would be difficult to apply in humanities and social sciences which generated the subtle difference causing the change of text through word spacing and expression methods. In addition, it is not easy to build the paper databases that are necessary for the operation of the program. Because building a paper database not only of domestic papers but also worldwide is costly and time consuming. Furthermore, in the case of a domestic paper, digital processing is practically difficult, because of file formats such as PDF, HWP and image PDF are different in each university. Actually, the Ministry of Education planned to impose the ‘Similarity Search System between Papers’ in 2010, but it was abandoned because of budget and appropriacy problems. The program was just imposed at the Seoul National University, KAIST, and Yonsei University in order to use in self-diagnosis of paper and plagiarism education for the students.
   The importance of research ethics education is already reflected in the plagiarism situation taking place on a daily basis between undergraduate students. It is well known that many students commit plagiarism through purchasing a report from internet sites such as Happy Campus and Report World. Chairman Lee Won-yong said, “Unlike the developed countries which emphasize the correct quote in order to prevent plagiarism, in Korea an easy moral sense about using other’s knowledge has been spread. Ranging from elementary school to university, education should be gived about how bad it is using other’s ideas and fruits without permission.” On the other hand, Lee In-jae of Seoul National University of Education said, “Respecting the research ethics is neither infringing the autonomy of research or far from research results. Rather, it is an important indicator of research results to determine whether how valuable it is.” The day is expected that all excuses for plagiarism will have disappeared by settling on honest writing culture.


 Paper Writing for Preventing of Plagiarism  

1. Use an Appropriate Quotation
   When writing a paper or presenting the finding of a study of their own, researchers are permitted to utilize the results and ideas of others. When writing an academic paper, utilizing the sentences or ideas of others is included quotation. If the quotation isn’t utilized rightfully, it could arouse the suspicion of plagiarism. According to the order of Ministry of Education, plagiarism is an act that uses people’s ideas, contents and results without appropriate quotation. Therefore quotation is important not only to avoid the suspicion but also in a sense of respect to other people’s achievement, so researchers should express a source clearly.
   Plagiarism occurs from not revealing the appropriate quotation primarily. So when we utilize the writings of others instead of the common knowledge, quotation have to be utilized properly as means of gratitude and connector for readers.

① A Direct Quotation
   It refers to the act which use the original of others as it is. Double quotation must be marked and researcher should reveal the source. If the amount of quotation long to more than 3~4 lines, indicate that it is a quoted paragraph and the line must be changed and set a left and right margin or replaced font size and style.

② An Indirect Quotation or Paragraph
   This is the quotation which is written on their own language by digesting the contents of the original text or not damaging the original contents. Quotation marks don't have to be used. At this time, care must be taken not to distort the original author's opinion


2. Revealing the Footnote and Reference

 

By Park Jeong-yeon
CP Reporter pjy2616@cnu.ac.kr
By Kim Min-sub
CP Cub-Reporter mzero_one@cnu.ac.kr

 

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