Plagiarism vs. Ideas

Plagiarism vs. Ideas

Word for word copying is plagiarism. Always has been. Always will be.

But reading something, weighing it, testing it against Scripture, refining it, and expressing the truth in your own words is not plagiarism. That is how preaching, teaching, and meditation have worked for centuries. Truth does not belong to the first man who writes it down; it belongs to God.

When a man rewrites an idea in his own language after discerning what is true, he is not stealing. He is understanding. He is not copying. He is internalizing. He is not borrowing. He is bearing witness. Truth is not proprietary. Truth is public domain.

This distinction is not only common sense; it is federal law.

U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code) makes this clear.

The key part is 17 U.S.C. § 102(b), which states:

“In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery…”

The idea is not copyrighted.
The expression is.
Only the specific wording someone uses to express an idea is protected.

That is the whole thing in one line.

Ideas are public domain.
Truth is public domain.
Insights are public domain.
Principles are public domain.
Patterns, doctrines, observations, concepts, all public domain.

Only the exact words someone uses to express an idea are copyrighted.

The idea, the truth itself is not.

~Tony

Pelagerism is 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.

The above would be pelagerism except I add "from the Oxford dictionary".


Copyright laws are different. They protect one's intellectual property. (CSU)

Plagiarism is an ethical violation. Copyright violations are legal violations. (CSU)



I could quote Calvin word for word as my own post. This would not be a copyright violation. But I could summarize those words and offer them as my own, which would be plagiarism.

Plagiarism is "The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own" [Oxford English Dictionary].

Jerome said:

Plagiarism is "The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own" [Oxford English Dictionary].

Click to expand...

Jerome, I understand the Oxford definition, but the way the word idea is being taken here is far broader than what the definition intends. In academic and practical usage, an “idea” in the context of plagiarism does not mean any general concept someone else has ever expressed. It refers to a specific intellectual creation that belongs uniquely to an author.

There is a difference between a concept and an authored idea. Einstein’s formulation of relativity is his idea. The concept of relativity is not. Newton’s laws are his ideas. The concept of gravity is not. One belongs to the author as a unique intellectual creation; the other is a general truth anyone may discuss, explain, or restate.

If Oxford meant “any idea,” then the consequences would be absurd. Every sermon would be plagiarism. Every commentary would be plagiarism. Every Bible study, doctrinal discussion, and theological conversation would be plagiarism. In fact, every post on this forum would be plagiarism, because all of us are constantly drawing on ideas from Scripture, teachers, tradition, and history. We are always working with concepts that did not originate with us.

“…and there is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9b

That is obviously not what the definition means.

Webster's Dictionary - to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

Oxford Dictionary - 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.

Cambridge Dictionary- the process or practice of using another person's ideas or workd and pretending that it is your own.

Harvard University - draw any idea or any language from someone else without adequately crediting that source in your paper.