The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.
Performance Indicators:
Source: Information literacy competency standards for higher education. (2000).
Your institution or faculty will have a policy concerning this issue and the penalties may include the following:
You will find paper mills on the Internet. These are web sites that provide you with completed assignments - the only thing you have to do is to put your name on it and submit it as your own work. That is plagiarism.
It is important to note that it is very easy for a lecturer to find out whether your assignment came from a paper mill. There are sophisticated detection tools on the Internet that allow a lecturer to search for that assignment and because the assignment is on the Internet, it will be found. Detection tools and links to them will be discussed further on in this section.
Copyright is part of a group of intellectual property rights, which provide legal protection to creators of works of the mind. Copyright in South Africa is governed by the Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978, as amended and the Regulations made in terms thereof and it grants owners of copyright (authors and other creators of intellectual property) the right to:
Reproduce the work;
Create derivative works based on the original work;
Distribute copies of the work;
To perform the work, or
To display the work in public.
(However, subject to certain conditions and within specific limits, the Act and Regulations afford the lecturer and the student the right to make copies of copyrighted works without obtaining permission).
The author or holder of his/her licensee (in some cases) can take legal action where there is an infringement of his/her rights. The remedies provided include delivery of the infringing material, damages and an interdict preventing further infringement of his/her rights. The courts have the power to award additional damages where there has been a flagrant infringement of copyright.
The Copyright Act also makes provision for criminal penalties - a fine (of R5 000) and/or imprisonment of up to three years per infringement for a first conviction. The maximum fine and/or imprisonment penalty for second conviction is R10 000 and/or five years, per infringement.