Some people think that plagiarism is to publish all or part of other people's works as their own works naked, while plagiarism needs to be changed, disguised, abridged and supplemented to steal its essence. There is no clear legal definition and distinction between plagiarism and plagiarism in relevant laws and regulations in China. The first paragraph of Article 19 of the Trial Regulations on Copyright Protection of Books and Periodicals promulgated by the Ministry of Culture 1984 in June (it is a confidential document, and the National Copyright Administration 1987 has explicitly prohibited the public publication of the regulations and its implementation rules, the same below) means "publishing works created by others as their own works, whether they are published in whole or in part, whether they are published as they are, abridged or modified". Look up Modern Chinese Dictionary (revised edition) 1999 published by the Commercial Press. Plagiarism refers to copying other people's works or sentences for yourself; Plagiarism refers to stealing (other people's works). Obviously, there is no essential difference between plagiarism and plagiarism. Perhaps because of this, Article 46 of the Copyright Law, which was newly revised in June 20001year, deleted the word "plagiarism" in Article 46 of the original Copyright Law, and changed "plagiarism and plagiarism of other people's works" to "plagiarism of other people's works".

Generally speaking, plagiarism in China's judicial practice should follow two standards: first, whether the plagiarized (plagiarized) works are protected by copyright law; Second, whether the plagiarist uses other people's works is beyond the scope of "appropriate citation". Regarding the quantitative restriction of "appropriate citation", Article 15 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Trial Regulations on the Protection of Books, Newspapers and Periodicals in China clearly stipulates: "Cite non-poetry"; "If one or more works are cited, the total number of citations shall not exceed one tenth of the total number of works created by me". Some people also object to this quantitative restriction, thinking that it is difficult to grasp the identification of plagiarized (plagiarized) works simply from the quantity, but mainly from the "quality". This view is not unreasonable, but how to determine it from the "quality" is also difficult to grasp.

However, in any case, plagiarism of works protected by China's copyright law is an infringement explicitly prohibited by the copyright law, and its legal consequences are clearly stipulated in Article 46 of the new copyright law: "Whoever plagiarizes other people's works shall bear civil liabilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the influence, apologizing and compensating for losses according to the situation." In addition, please refer to the reply from the Copyright Administration Department of the National Copyright Administration to the XX Copyright Administration on how to identify plagiarism.

Quansi [1999] No.6

Copyright Bureau of XX City:

Received a letter from your bureau about identifying plagiarism. After study, the reply is as follows:

1. Plagiarism and plagiarism mentioned in the Copyright Law are the same concept (hereinafter referred to as plagiarism, for the sake of brevity), which means stealing other people's works or pieces of works for their own use. Plagiarism infringement, like other infringements, requires four elements: first, the act is illegal; Second, objective facts that are harmful; Third, there is a causal relationship with the damage facts; Fourth, the actor is at fault. Because plagiarism needs to be published to produce infringement consequences, that is, the objective fact of damage, it is usually referred to as published plagiarism when identifying plagiarism. Therefore, more accurately, plagiarism refers to stealing other people's works or publishing fragments of works.

Secondly, from the form of plagiarism, there are acts of copying others' works intact or basically intact, and there are also acts of taking others' original components protected by copyright as their own after a makeover. The former is called low-level plagiarism in the field of copyright law enforcement, and the latter is called high-level plagiarism. It is easier to identify low-level plagiarism. Advanced plagiarism needs careful appraisal, even expert appraisal. Advanced plagiarism often encountered in copyright enforcement includes: changing the type of works and treating the works created by others as their own independent works, such as changing novels into movies; Instead of changing the types of works, we use elements protected by copyright in our works and change the specific forms of expression of our works. We regard the works created by others as our own independent works, such as the original plots and contents of TV dramas created by others, and regard them as our own independent TV dramas after a makeover.

Three, as mentioned above, copyright infringement, like other civil rights, should have four elements, among which, the fault of the actor includes intention and negligence. This principle is also applicable to the identification of plagiarism infringement, regardless of whether there is subjective intention to take others' works as your own.

Four, the identification of plagiarism, is not whether all or part of the use of other people's works, whether it is well received by the outside world, whether it constitutes a major or substantial part of plagiarism. Everything that constitutes the above elements is regarded as plagiarism.

The above opinions are for your reference.