Is there need to redefine plagiarism

BBC NEWS | Education | Cambridge students 'plagiarising'

There is a need to re define the very idea of plagiarism. There was a time, just two or three years back when Wikipedia was considered a poor source of information. Now, again and again, we find that there are reports that the articles are virtually lifted from Wikipedia. When Wikipedia came into being, there was lot of criticism. It was promoted as a step towards democratization of knowledge.

In case of Google, when they came with the idea of print.google.com, they faced the cases in court. Now when they they have become books.google.com, they have settled the cases and even they had started with the idea of democratization of knoweldge and supported an economy which works along with free availability of information which could be converted into knowledge by the ability of the person who uses that information.


Now, this news report is referring to a problem in a centre of knowledge which is considered to be the ultimate temple of knowledge.(at least, for this blogger from India, it is like that. May be hangover from colonial period.). But I will again insist that there is need to review the availability of information through new technology. There is a need of new paradigms.