Plagiarism is a serious offense that is not just limited to colleges and universities. Many of the small businesses are seen breaching the laws with respect to the illegal acquisition of intellectual property of another person. Plagiarism in small business is rapidly increasing forms of plagiarism. There are several reasons to it. Understanding these reasons would help in avoiding plagiarism in the better way.
Plagiarism in what forms is prevalent in the small business
Copyright violation and plagiarism occurs in small business in various forms. Some of the common ways in which it happens are by illegal use of content and creations from another site to build their own site. Also, it is due to the distribution of the marketing materials or to execute or advertise their business product or services.
Not just copying the text but plagiarism is also seen in design aspects of a website such as images, text, logo, etc. People do not hesitate in copying the layout and content of the marketing material such as flyers, brochures, legal contracts, tutorials, guides, etc.
Reasons behind its occurrence
There is no one but several reasons why small businesses are noticing an abrupt increase in plagiarism and violation of copyright.
People who are setting up their business
Plagiarism is often committed by people who are setting up their business for the first time. People start entering into this field due to the recession, down economy, and unemployment. They believe using other’s intellectual property is a fast way to make money and build their income.
Necessity of a website
Another reason is that people have started understanding that having their own business website is very critical for the success of their business. It is no more optional for a business. Owning a business website serves as a business card to reach an online and offline audience in a quicker and effective way. People, in order to accomplish the process of website creation in a quick way, take the shortcut and that is by way of plagiarism.
They lack desired skills, experience, and interest to create a unique, informative, and engaging website on their own. They do not even want to spend money to hire a professional web developer for building up of their website. So, they resort to unethical practices to do the task. This trend has been increasing in small business.
What is needed to prevent plagiarism?
Awareness about these occurrences and its severe legal consequences would definitely make people stop these unethical doings. More and more people should learn about plagiarism checker software to ensure that none of the website data contains copied content from anywhere on the web.
Copy and paste job can work as a shortcut to get a business online and effectively running, it can also prove to be highly dangerous. When this unethical activity is recognized it can lead to serious consequences. Knowing about this, one should take help of plagiarism detection software to keep their services safe and protected.