Plagiarism has more than one name
More than 7 million users use pirate sites, more than any legal service offered by TV operators in Poland. However, this number is still almost one million less than six years ago, a drop of 11 per cent.
The latest Deloitte report commissioned by the Signal Association is an attempt to capture the phenomenon of TV content piracy, its scale, specifics, causes and consequences. The theft of content and intellectual property on the Internet is a complex issue and the problem is business, technological, legal and social.
The report outlines users’ perceptions of piracy. Many are aware of the dangers of illegal content use, but these are not sufficient reasons to abandon piracy sites. However, some users are unaware of the illegal nature of these sites or rationalise their behaviour.
The Deloitte report became an inspiration for the journalists of Radio 357, who raised the issue of piracy in their morning programme a few days ago. One of the participants in the conversation was dr Agnieszka Kwiecień-Madej, a lawyer and lecturer at the Department of Civil Law at the University of Wrocław.
Going back a few decades, the programme makers recalled that in the 1980s and 1990s it was quite normal – copying films and music and computer games. It was illegal, but completely official, so nobody called it piracy. Although that’s exactly what it was. And not only did no one mind, no one called it stealing someone’s intellectual property.
Piracy today looks a bit different. And it has many faces. Why do people steal films, music or other property online? Because they are free or cheaper. The losses caused by such practices run into billions today.
The Deloitte report does not mention this, but the use of other people’s property and creativity is still flourishing, for example at universities. Semester papers, final course tests, bachelor’s and master’s theses are checked for plagiarism by lecturers and supervisors using special anti-plagiarism software. But plagiarism still exists,” said dr Agnieszka Kwiecień-Madej on Radio 357:
Students don’t really know what to mark in their work as a citation and where to put a footnote that they have used someone else’s work. And yet this is theft. Using someone else’s intellectual property and using someone else’s work, signing as your own, is punishable.
How do we change this? First and foremost, raise awareness.
Next academic year, workshops are planned for students at the University of Wrocław conducted by dr Agnieszka Kwiecień-Madej.
But already in September, as part of the XXVI Lower Silesian Science Festival at the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics of the University of Wrocław, one of the several lectures and workshops we have prepared this year will be a lecture by dr Agnieszka Kwiecień-Madej entitled „Plagiat – ciemna strona działalności twórczej” (“Plagiarism – the dark side of creative activity”) (20.09.2023, 10.00-11.00, room A, building C, WPAE UWr).
Ed. Katarzyna Górowicz-Maćkiewicz
Source: deloitte.com, Radio357
