What legal action could be taken against someone who uses information from another source without acknowledging the source for as far as internet based actions are concerned especially regarding information sites where people ask questions to get answers?
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Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today
ANSWERS: 4
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Not much. Plagiarism is not a crime. There are narrow circumstances in which plagiarism could be considered fraud or copyright infringment, but these are very narrow exceptions. This is especially true with copyright infringement. Most people who plagiarize will avoid copyrightable material because it will indirectly indicate a source. Note: Although I know of no state that has a law that makes plagiarism a crime, it would not suprise if one does. Thus, if anyone lives in a state that has criminalized plagiarism, please post a comment.
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Laws vary world wide ... but one thing about legal action that only varies slightly is the COST. It is almost always far more expensive to try to show proof that the 'defendant' knowingly copied directly, than any financial settlement might pay ... and prison time for repeating something is extremely rare. A possible exception just might come under the heading of "National Security Leaks" ... copy/paste something labeled "Top Secret" from a supposedly secure document and they just might lock you in a room and then throw away the room (to heck with the key).
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Yeah, I'd have to agree that taking information from an internet site and not citing the quotation or source (we all try when we can) is not a crime. As long as you properly copyright your work, you have a base for litigation in event of theft. Wiki, for example can be quoted left, right, up and down because: "In every article, links will guide the user to associated articles, often with additional information. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. There is no need to worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia's software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes." In other words, there is no harm nor foul in copyleft.
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I think if you don't cite your source you run the risk of no one believing you since your not backing up what you say. I think that if you copied from other pages to your own and then charged member ship to view the info them maybe some one could get you for making money off of there hard work
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