The Urban Layers Project

If a piece of work or something someone/some people have created then they should own the rights to it and therefore it belongs to them. There is of course varying degrees in how many rights they reserve and different countries more than likely have their own interpretations, but on the web this becomes a bit more of a grey area, with no-one to stringently enforce the laws, that's not to say that if you do violate them you wont be caught.

I was always told "In order not to plagiarize someones work, you read a book, close it, then write what you have learned from memory and that way you are not plagiarizing". With that in mind it might also be considered a good idea to make reference to the material used; this of course would be with regards to a book or an article belonging to someone else.

From a standpoint of websites and SEO it is always going to be better to not use someone else's published material, whether they give you right to or otherwise. This is because search engines are looking for original content, content that is unique and can only be traced to one source. So, by using someone else's work or writings a search engine is likely to put your site far back or near the end of the search results and class your page as being in one form or another as a copy.

How to avoid breaking Copyright and Plagiarism

1. Do not directly copy or lift sentences/paragraphs of someone's work, that is not to say you cannot use someone else's work in a quote to back up what you are saying so long as you reference the original author properly.

2. If you have found something in someone else's work that you like or need to use in some manor, then you can always paraphrase, by doing so you are rewriting the original document in your own words and way as to make the text clearer. With paraphrasing you are not allowed to use distinct phrases or words that have already been used by the author.

3. Check your Countries Copyright laws as different Countries have different copyright laws or at lease different interpretations of the law. This may also be useful if using someone else's work from a different country.

4. If in doubt about whether you're breaking copyright or any laws, then avoid the questionable act until such time as you can get clarification or find the correct answer. This way you can avoid any legal action by not taking a unnecessary risk.