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Source: http://guides.library.vu.edu.au/referencing
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• to use (another's production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source
• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
Basically plagiarism is an act of stealing someone else’s work and not admitting to it. Most students in either high school or college should know what plagiarism is. Most Universities have strict policies about regarding plagiarism and copying. Now we have to look at what code reuse should be defined as. The formal definition of code reuse according to thefreedictionary.com is:
“The ability to use software routines over again in new applications”.
What this is saying is that code reuse is allowing the reuse of software routines, which can include methods or algorithms, and implementing them into new software. Now that we have seen both the definition of plagiarism and code reuse we can analyze them and see if code reuse is after all considered plagiarism. After looking at the two definitions they do seem similar. As in the definition for code reuse implies that previously made code will be used by someone else or another company for their own benefit, often without crediting the source. So as of now it seems that code reused can be considered plagiarism.
So, is the case closed? Does just looking at the definitions and determining that code reused does fall under a form of plagiarism. The answer is no, code reuse, is not in fact plagiarism. This is in part due to two specific reasons.
The first is that code reuse isn’t considered plagiarism is that when used correctly, it is encouraged as good practice for a programmer. What I mean by this is that the idea of code reuse is to save time by allowing other programmers to use premade code. A good example where code reuse could be used is whenever a crazy efficient algorithm is made, it wouldn’t make sense to have to reinvent the wheel so to say.
Secondly, plagiarism usually is not used for coding usually because systems can borrow certain concepts, but the code usually has to be modified. This is just saying that even though the code may be copied the user will have to be able to connect the piece into the existing code to make the program function properly.
So we learned that code reuse is not necessarily considered to be plagiarism because of two reasons. One, code reuse isn’t considered plagiarism is because when used correctly, it is encouraged as good practice for a programmer. Second, code reuse can be systems that borrow certain concepts, but the code usually has to be modified. After analyzing these statements most people will agree that code reuse is needed and should not be considered plagiarism.
Sources:
plagiarism.org
thefreedictionary.com
rajlaboratory.blogspot.com
You make some really good point about "reinventing the wheel." You have to take into consideration time efficiency. A lot of good code is already out there and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a corporate environment where you can save a whole lot of time just importing libraries. A whole lot of code works off of other code written years ago. Look at how many computers utilizes the GNU plus Linux operating system. Almost every company has some computer running it, and if they had to write all code from scratch it would be impossible to get any work done.
ReplyDeleteI should also mention the movement of open source. A ton of source code is publicly available and its even encouraged to modify it. You can use the code as freely as you want however you want. All you have to do is include the license with it if you redistribute it. I'm sure that the plagiarism thing in computer science courses is to encourage you how to learn how to actually code. A lot of learning is hands on experience and you can't get that from just copy pasting code. Unfortunately I don't know how many students really learn how to. The often cited example is how often people are unable to complete fizz-buzz.
I found this article to be very interesting and very enlightening. Plagiarism is definitely an ethical issue. Plagiarism is also something that everyone hears about from a young age and is a very serious offence. So as expected plagiarism is something that is not new to me. I already knew about plagiarism, how it is caused, and what can be the results of plagiarizing. However, code reuse is something I have never heard of. So when I first started reading the article I thought it was going to be hard for me to follow along because of my lack of knowledge about code reuse. I soon found out that following the progression of the article was easier than I thought it would be because of the layout you used. I liked how after you foreshadowed what the article would be about you gave a clear definition of what plagiarism is and what code reuse is. This gave me a clear basis to wok off of when reading the rest of the article. Like I previously stated, the layout you used throughout the article made reading and following the article very easy. Finally, by comparing and contrasting plagiarism and code reuse you were able to lead the reader to the general consensus that code reuse is not necessarily considered plagiarism because of two reasons. These two reasons were, as you stated, “One, code reuse isn’t considered plagiarism is because when used correctly, it is encouraged as good practice for a programmer. Second, code reuse can be systems that borrow certain concepts, but the code usually has to be modified.” By using this statement in the conclusion of the article, you solidified the overall message of the article and solidified that code reuse is not necessarily considered plagiarism.
ReplyDeleteYou have a very intriguing point about code reuse as plagiarism Mr. Jacobs. I would have to disagree however. Given the definition you provided, code reuse is a best practice when designing your own software. This practice is the idea that objects and methods should be written generically so that your code may be used in a wide variety of applications. That is to say, so you may reuse your code in other applications. I don’t see code reuse as having relevance when it comes to using someone else’s code. Even in a professional business setting, the code is technically owned by the company. So even if you’re reusing another developers code within the company, it’s still remaining in-house.
ReplyDeleteI suggest that using algorithms or subroutines from the Internet does have an ethical dilemma of plagiarism. Of course standard copywrite licenses applies to this matter in the sense that its up to the original works creator to decide if his or her work is public or private. Perhaps it’s fair to say code provided on stackexchange is given as public domain. But I think it’s an unfair assumption to assume code generally can’t fall victim to plagiarism. Even open source software code is bound by a license of use that may or may not prohibit derivation into a propriety application.
Software Developers commonly use frameworks from other companies, typically these frameworks need to be cited and acknowledged somewhere in the application, otherwise it is considered plagiarism and is grounds for legal action.