farah altabbaa: what's wrong with plagiarism

what does plagiarism means? and whats wrong with it? these two simple questions were the reason behind writing this article, when Gunner Swanson sent a survey with these questions he although got his answers from at least the answer of one person but he was not satisfied by the answers he got from the designers.

he wrote the article between 1997-2001, and it was published in Citizen designer: Perspective on Design Responsibility, By Steven Heller & Veronique Vienna in 2003.

Gunner Swanson took his MFA in Graphic design from California state University, and his Undergraduate degree is in art history from UCLA.He taught graphic and design history at Otis College of Art and Design, UCLA extension, the University of California Davis, and Loyola Marymount University.He is a graphic designer now for over that thirty years of professional experience.

His work has been honored with 100 awards and publications. Dozens of his articles about graphic design have appeared in the academic and trade press and his essays have been reproduced in several anthologies of graphic design writing.He also was the editor of the Allworth Press Book Graphic Design & Reading, the co-editor of Virginia commonwealth University’s zed3 and has been invited to speak about graphic design and design education in the US, Australia, Canada, and England.

plagiarism is theft, although in design there is no clear boundaries for what is plagiarism but stealing somebody's idea or design and present it as it is your work is stealing and lying and no one can disagree with that. Plagiarism is an ethical question, and not necessarily a moral one. plagiarism doesn't stop only in designers work it also happen every where, stealing someone's research, picture, though, it can even be stealing some shop window's idea.

now a-days plagiarism is easier than ever,The Internet now makes it easy to find thousands of relevant sources in seconds, in the space of a few minutes plagiarists can find, copy, and paste together an entire term paper or essay or even any artwork because much of the material online is produced by other students. The biggest problem that both graphic designers and writers face regarding the Internet is plagiarism, It is simple to save a web page designed by someone else and use it as your own, Plagiarists can download graphics with a click of the mouse.
Adding copyrights to images can help, but it is impossible to know who has taken your things unless you are constantly looking for them.Many users are unaware of copyright laws and that they are violating them by using your work.

visuals from the article