spfister - EDIT-5370 - Module 10 - Scenario 2

Stephen Pfister

EDIT-5370

Module 10 - Scenarios

May 5, 2019

Scenario 2

After completing the non-profit website, the next assigment asked that each student find something that their website is lacking, and build it.  Sam decided to build a new section with information about the characteristics of different breeds of dogs so that potential adopters could know which breed would best suit their needs. Sam was able to complete this project pretty quickly after finding a website that had this very information. He looked around on the site to see if the information was available to use. After searching the site, Sam did not find any information prohibiting the use of content. He copied it over to the site he built and the non-profit was excited to have this new feature on their website. Should the non-profit have any concern over this new content and the use of it on their site? Since the professor is still using this as in teaching her course, is she okay given the content that has been added?

The purpose and character of the use

This information is being used as course credit, as a means to attract donors and adopters, and as a method to teach students in an online course. While it’s not being used for any profit, it still belongs to the original author and therefore should not be used without permission.

The nature of the work

The content has been used with good nature. The intention was not to steal the content and use it for profit. On the surface, this seems to be just fine. However, Sam should get permission from the original content creators as the information is protected under intellectual property.

The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole

The entire website is already using images that were taken straight from public online courses. In this case, the information of an entire section was copied from another site and added to the one Sam created. Sam should have used this site as reference in his research, but should not have just copied all of the content over. A controversy is formed in grading this assignment. The project was to work on the website. Since Sam is technically just using this content as “filler” content, should his work still be graded, or would this fall into the plagiarism category.

The effect of the use on the market or potential market for the original work

Credit will be given to the dog rescue for the great content on the site, and Sam will receive credit for the content and building the site. This is not right. The original author should receive the credit for this.