What is a copyright?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a copyright the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the material and form of something such as books, novels, music, or artistic works.
Plagiarism is the act of passing off someone else's ideas or words as your own or using another's person's work without giving credit to its creator. This includes artwork, pictures, music, etc. In short, it's not only cheating, it's stealing!
What is plagiarism and how can you avoid it?
Fair Use of another's work is allows you to legally use small parts of copyrighted materials without permission of the copyright owner provided the use is fair, example- school paper or project, and reasonable (think "a small" portion of your assignment or project) and does not change the value or meaning of the material, and does not cut into the profits expected by the copyright owner or creator.
The Purdue Owl website has more information on fair use in papers and projects https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/731/1/
Resources to help you avoid plagiarism:
Plagiarism 101 Website http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism
Citation Machine (an online citation generator) http://www.citationmachine.net/
Easy Bib (an online citation generator) http://www.easybib.com/
Purdue Owl Website. This website includes helpful tips on writing and formatting papers and citations. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Copyright. (2016, January). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 9, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copyright
Actual date of publication unknown.
Fair Use. (2016, January). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 9, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fair%20use
Actual date of publication unknown.
Plagiarism. (2016, January). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 9, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism
Actual date of publication unknown.