The Curse of Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V

Photo: Prabir Das

March 3 was an important day for the students of a certain department of Dhaka University as it was the day final results of their graduation course would be published. Like all the other students, Fahima Khan and Koushik Roy were also excited about it. However a shock was awaiting them. They found their names nowhere in the result sheet. They scrutinised the result sheet top to bottom but their names were nowehere to be found.
Fahima, already in tears, found her name and Koushik's in another list. Beside their names it read, “Result withdrawn, plagiarism detected.” The message was rather loud and clear. While doing their assignments they had copied some information from another source without giving any credit to it. For any publication or research work it has always been regarded as a serious ethical crime which invalidates the authenticity of the entire work.
Due to the spread of the internet and open sources of knowledge such as Wikipedia, plagiarism has become a common practice among college and university students. In our universities many teachers do not take adequate measures against plagiarism. Rakib Hasan a student of Dhaka University says, “For passing a semester we have to submit at least five papers in five different courses. Many students write their papers by copying directly from Wikipedia or other internet based sources without even mentioning or verifying the source. It happens at a large scale, as in most cases our professors don't take the proper measure against it.”
The scenario that Rakib depicts seems quite rampant in many of our universities and colleges. Some students don't want to spend their time in library or field study when the information is just a click away. Lack of knowledge about the correct way of referencing and citation is another reason behind this. Many students, well into their 2nd or 3rd years into the varsity don't know how to credit the sources s/he has used in his/her paper.
Mahbubur Rahman, an assistant professor of Institute of Education and Research, Dhaka University says, “One of the main reasons for plagiarism is that many of our students don't know how to avoid it. It has made us teach our students about the correct way of referencing in a separate course. I think all the departments of our universities should run a mandatory course on referencing and ways to avoid plagiarism.”
However university students and researchers are not alone in committing this crime. Many famous personalities such as political leaders and artists have alleged to have committed plagiarism. And when proved guilty they have to pay a heavy price for it.
We still have no policy to prevent plagiarism in Bangladesh despite the fact that we have 32 public universities and over 50 private universities. Even in the latest education policy passed in 2010, no steps have been taken to prevent plagiarism. While other countries follows a stringent policy to prevent this crime to have more original researches and works, our policy makers and academicians seem to be unaware of it.

Kaavya Bishwanathan
A sophomore of Harvard University Kaavya earned praise for her novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Life and Got a Life. But just when she was receiving rewards for her literary works it was revealed that she cut-and-pasted some whole sections of text from Megan F McCafferty's novels Sloppy Firsts (2001) and Second Helpings (2003), as well as authors Sophie Kinsella, Salman Rushdie, and Meg Cabot. As a result, her publisher Little Brown withdrew the book and cancelled all contracts with her.

George Harrison

The Chiffons

George Harrison and The Chiffons
George Harrison's first post-Beatles performance “My Sweet Lord” had striking resemblance with “He is so Fine” by The Chiffons. So The Chiffons sued George Harrison for copyright infringement. Though the judge found that it was a case of accidental plagiarism, yet Harrison had to pay USD 587,000.

Fareed Zakaria

Fareed Zakaria
Famous journalist and author Fareed Zakaria was accused of plagiarism after publishing an article on gun control which had similarities with a New Yorker article by Jill Lepore. Farid was suspended temporarily from the CNN and Times while the allegation was investigated. He also apologised in a statement “unreservedly” saying that, “he had made a terrible mistake.” Six days later, after reviewing his work, the CNN and Times reinstated him as they found it as an “unintentional” and “isolated” case.

Joseph Biden

US Senator Joseph Biden
Joseph Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic US Presidential nominations when it was alleged that he had failed a 1965 introductory law school course on legal methodology due to plagiarism. Biden insisted, however, that he had done nothing 'malevolent,' that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite sources carefully. Though Joseph was cleared of the allegations by the Supreme Court, he could not run that year as a Presidential candidate.