INSCAPE DESIGN COLLEGE

Policy & Procedures on Intellectual Property

R1.2

2007/11/30

Policy on Intellectual Property

Using someone else’s ideas or work without their permission is theft and is particularly offensive to designers. Design education institutions play a key role in developing a sense of ethics in future designers. As such, it is essential that academic staff ensure that students are made aware of the importance of honesty and integrity.

Research and design are both processes of basing ones learning and conceptualisation on the knowledge and insight (intellectual property) of others. Using someone else’s intellectual property without their permission or without acknowledging the source is termed plagiarism. Lecturers use projects and assignments as an opportunity to inform students of the need to recognise their sources properly.

Intellectual Property Procedures

When a student makes use of someone else’s work (text, images, objects, designs, music, computer programs, ideas…) and presents it as their own, they are guilty of plagiarism. Even when the work is reworked without identifying the source, it is considered to be plagiarism.

Plagiarism can be deliberate or unintentional. Deliberate plagiarism occurs when the person is aware of that it is an offence and still carries it out. In legal terms, this constitutes fraud. Unintentional plagiarism occurs when the person is unaware (or uninformed) that they have committed an offence. This is considered to be less serious.

Given the consequence of the plagiarism, it is important that students be educated about the nature and effect of plagiarism throughout the course. To this end, emphasis on the role of ethics in the life of the designer are integrated into several assignments. Students should sign a document acknowledging that they are aware of the nature and seriousness of plagiarism, and that the work that they produce is their own except then the source is properly acknowledged.

In the event that an occurrence of plagiarism is suspected, the lecturer should collect all the evidence to support the charge. The authenticity of the evidence should be established as accurately as possible. The student should be invited to a meeting held to discuss the matter. The student, together with any person whom the student may wish to support their case, meets with the lecturer and the programme coordinator (or other senior person). A record of what is said is kept (this will become a legal document). The student is informed of the charge and the evidence supporting the charge. As this may be a case of intentional plagiarism, explain the situation rather than make an accusation. The student is asked to present the situation from their own perspective. Be sensitive to the fact that English may not be the student’s home language.

After the student has had an opportunity to satisfactorily put their case, the lecturer and programme coordinator must make a finding.

• If the matter is not clear cut, an expert must be brought to a later meeting.
• If it is found that there was no plagiarism, a suitable apology should be made to the student.
• If it was a case of unintentional plagiarism, the seriousness of the misdeed and its consequences should be made clear to the student. The student should be given an opportunity to produce and submit another assignment.
• If the student was guilty of deliberate plagiarism, a penalty of 100% should be applied to the project and the student advised of the seriousness of the deed.
• If this is a second occurrence of deliberate plagiarism, the student should be suspended from the college and their parents or guardians informed.

end

proposed amendments in red
changes since previous release in italics

ref: COPYRIGHT ACT 98 OF 1978 as amended