![IMG_20240514_111341.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcVXwoYYzBJ16Szt2GZzCEFj7aq32Zwot1g9B5cU5HQUJ/IMG_20240514_111341.jpg) #### What Is Plagiarism? When it comes to the word itself, there are millions of ways that I would like to take to approach it. Although the best approach is to define it through experience, second is to enumerate publicly discovered instances of alleged plagiarism, next is to define it through legal opinion of the Department of Justice here in the Philippines and lastly through legalese opinion of the world and the view of of Steemit community with regard to this. I really want to take all of these considerations since I am from the Republic of the Philippines. This is the the only way to introduce and eventually make my achievement posts 100% distinct compared to everybody else. I want to make this post into the most distinct Achievement Three post in the history of Steemit. #### The Road 99.99% Take When It Comes To Defining It >"Presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition, as is the use of material generated wholly or in part through use of artificial intelligence (save when use of AI for assessment has received prior authorisation e.g. as a reasonable adjustment for a student’s disability). Plagiarism can also include re-using your own work without citation. " ^Source

The above cited definition is the definition that guides the University of Oxford students throughout their student and professional life with the modern day reality and twist which they bravely finger pointed as AI. #### My Personal Experience with Plagiarism When I turned 15 my High School Journalism teacher will always be in habit of directing his sermons at my direction whenever he is being given a chance to blurt his emotions in an unsolicited manner. Some of my classmates figured out that our teacher is taking things personally instead of doing his job as a veritable teacher. One time he was accusing someone of committing plagiarism and I knew at that time that I am the one being accused of committing plagiarism although I inserted that article from Time Magazine about AIDS as a filler for some Journalism project that we performed in groups. There are are suppose to be "Three Spreads" in our mock Newspaper Project. The idea is to learn how to create a conventional newspaper from Galley Proof through Dummy Sheet and the final Draft for submission and all that our teacher noticed is the article which I inserted to make the newspaper look balanced sight wise and content wise. He is trying to infuriate me just for the heck of it. It was not even an exercise to be published in our school paper. The idea is to create a newspaper from the ground up and not to worry about plagiarism since it is not the aim of the mock Newspaper Project. If you are being wrongfully accused of plagiarism whenever it is totally irrelevant particularly in this specific case, you will feel 100% apathy almost all the time. #### Famous Filipino Personalities Who Were Accused By The Court Of Public Opinion To Have Committed Outright Plagiarism >"Senator Vicente Sotto III's chief of staff says his boss has no liability for copying passages from US blogger Sarah Pope (right) because it was his staff who did it. File photos from Senate website and Pope's blog. In fact, a day after the Filipino Freethinkers exposed similarities between Sotto’s speech and blogger Sarah Pope’s piece, the comedian-turned-politician flatly denied accusations of plagiarism. “Bakit ko naman iko-quote ang blogger? Blogger lang iyon. Ang kino-quote ko si Natasha Campbell-McBride,” Sotto said in an ANC interview, referring to the the source whom Pope quoted. (Why should I quote a blogger? She’s just a blogger. I’m quoting Natasha Campbell-McBride.) On the same day, Pope confirmed that Sotto plagiarized her work. At this point, it was Sotto’s chief of staff, lawyer Hector Villacorta, who came forward to apologize for what he called a “single trespass.” " ^Source

Case in point Former Senator Vicente Sotto III, he was demonized by the mob for allegedly having committed plagiarism but no one ever attempted to file a formal complaint anyways. He was a popular Senator and later became a Senate President. >" In a letter to then Ateneo president Fr Bienvenido Nebres, Pangilinan described the incident as “a source of deep personal embarrassment.” “I am afraid the damage has been done – wala talaga akong mukhang ihaharap pagkatapos,” said Pangilinan, explaining his decision to resign." ^Source

Manuel V. Pangilinan on the other hand is the CEO of MPIC amongst others. He too was demonized by the angry mob but was not brought before the proper courts. Meaning he was crucified by the court of public opinion. Nothing more, nothing less. >"He pursued his Master of Business Administration in the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce as a Procter & Gamble Fellow." ^Source

##### How to Read These Between The Lines The public will be there to make accusations but what is important is to respond according to what is ethical and legal. In the the case of Steemit community it is a very slippery slope since most people are hiding behind online translators to farm the rewards pool. #### The Definition From Department of Justice of the Philippines >"On October 3rd, the Philippines Cybercrime Prevention Act (RA 10175) took effect and, with it, the country instituted criminal penalties for a variety of online acts, including spamming, identity theft and, most controversially, libel. However, the law may have had a somewhat unintended side effect - criminalizing some forms of plagiarism." ^Source

The idea is to eliminate the political opponents of the incumbent during that time and as it turns out the incumbent lost the mandate a couple of years later. Legal gymnastics is the job of the corrupted mind as the law is suppose to be constant if it changes then in the public domain this is called the Policies of the Politician. #### The World Definition of Plagiarism >"Lastly, if a person plagiarizes a published work, they might have to pay royalties to the original author or retract their work. There are many famous examples of plagiarism—and the consequences it can provoke. For example, pop singer Lana Del Rey was accused of plagiarizing a Radiohead tune, and the singer was made to pay the group. Additionally, singer Olivia Rodrigo recently came under fire for “borrowing” music tracks from the emo-pop group Paramore—and Rodrigo had to attribute her music to the famous band retroactively and pay several fees. " ^Source

The world definition of plagiarism is pretty harsh on your wallet. You will be forced by courts to pay a very hefty fine. You cannot claim innocence or ignorance all the time. And most of the time apology is not enough. #### The Steemit Community's Definition of Plagiarism It may be a slippery slope but the Proof Of Brain blockchain such as Steemit has a very clear definition which is very similar to saying that we should not abuse and over farm the curators and rewards pool. The rewards pool is for those who value hard work and brain. #### Conclusion Achievement 3 is by far the best of the best as it values ethics and idea of recognizing that somebody out there created something great for us and we are not monsters whom are going to trample and desecrate their work. Simply because it is not our work. But at the same time wrongful accusations should be resolved and in a very impartial manner with no bloodlust and cancel culture involved. As an addendum to my Journalism teacher he gave us a term paper and it is about a book review and most of my classmates pretended to have read their respected books and proceeded by plagiarizing the book review of our Journalism teacher. They got high scores for copy pasting the one page review boilerplate of our Journalism teacher while I created an eight paged review and got a very low score. It is injustice but my revenge is I have 1300 posts in Steemit network and earned Steem just by being a hardworking ethical writer. I take no shortcuts in life. I always take the road less travelled. Fin. "I have read and understood the Steemit Etiquette on Steemit Community and will do my best to embrace them"