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Chapter 6 - Copyrights and Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2026

Roger Kreuz
Affiliation:
University of Memphis
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Summary

Plagiarism is not illegal, but copyright infringement is, and laws concerning copyright have evolved to favor the rights of content creators at the expense of those who might wish to make use of or transform this work. The use of copyrighted material is allowed under limited circumstances known as fair use. These include exceptions for parody and using work for educational purposes. However, there are gray areas, and this chapter describes a couple of these. One is fan fiction, in which writers make use of the characters and worlds created by published authors. Some authors encourage this, while others deplore it. Another is cookbooks, since lists of ingredients or procedures can’t be copyrighted. The chapter also includes three domains in which plagiarism seems to be rampant. One is the content of commencement addresses. Many speakers at graduation ceremonies have used the speeches of others, incorrectly believing they were free for the taking. Another is music that employs short samples from earlier, copyrighted songs. And contests that require the creation of new music for competitions – such as the annual Eurovision contest – seem tailor-made for plagiarism to occur.

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  • Copyrights and Contexts
  • Roger Kreuz, University of Memphis
  • Book: Strikingly Similar
  • Online publication: 28 January 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009618335.007
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  • Copyrights and Contexts
  • Roger Kreuz, University of Memphis
  • Book: Strikingly Similar
  • Online publication: 28 January 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009618335.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Copyrights and Contexts
  • Roger Kreuz, University of Memphis
  • Book: Strikingly Similar
  • Online publication: 28 January 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009618335.007
Available formats
×