Recently I became aware of a business that has lifted, verbatim, vast amounts of content from its competitors’ websites. It was a shocking display of intentional plagiarism, and one I was compelled to draw to the attention of the firm’s CEO.
Plagiarism is a modern-day business risk, and one of which marketers and content producers must be especially mindful. Being found guilty of plagiarism would cause your business embarrassment at best, and potentially longer-lasting reputational damage.
Plagiarism (noun)
The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own: “There were accusations of plagiarism”.
Synonyms: copying, infringement of copyright, piracy, theft, stealing, poaching, appropriation.
It’s not difficult to avoid plagiarising someone else’s work:
1. Paraphrase, don’t copy.
2. Cite, quote and reference, when appropriate.
3. Incorporate links, both as a show of respect to the source, and to aid SEO.
Grammarly is purportedly the world’s most accurate grammar checker. For a fee, it also detects plagiarism by checking your text against eight billion websites.
If integrity and ethics guide you, it’s a valuable tool.
If they don’t, never mind.
