It is no secret that the business world is full of plagiarism that comes in many shapes and despite all the efforts on a global level to eradicate it, this phenomenon remains a terrible nuisance for honest businessmen around the world.
It seems unfair that you should work hard to start your business, develop a brand name and earn some trust of loyal customers, just to find out that someone else has stolen your idea and is making money out of it. Every product in the world that finds its way to each customer will experience some sort of competition made of similar products, but clearly not identical.
The biggest percentage of plagiarism can be found in our entertainment industry where pirated and unlicensed copies of movies, books, or songs are distributed online. These practices can give a tremendous blow to the right owners and cripple their earnings from royalties that they are entitled to receive.
Made in China
The plagiarism may not be invented in China but in the last few decades this country has become a synonym for this phenomenon and we are not talking just about copyright infringements in our entertainment industry.
We are talking about true plagiarism of everything that one can think of, like books, home appliances, or even transportation vehicles. Everything can be duplicated in China and this is what fuels the local economy on so many levels that their government is not making any huge effort for eradicating this practice. Most of these Asian or African countries have a similar problem, which is not considered a problem from their perspective, but it is a huge predicament for the copyright owners.
All attempts to check plagiarism in these countries are futile but maybe this is just one phase that every country must go through before it becomes free of product piracy.
The fact is that millions of people use pirated torrents of their favorite video games, movies, or music content because they cannot afford any original products. Since there is a great demand for these products the black market flourishes under current circumstances.
This is not an excuse for such behavior but it is the way that things are at this moment and we need to acknowledge this fact if we want to find a longterm solution. Only highly developed countries who are some main producers of plagiarised goods have a developed awareness of this problem and piracy rate is relatively lower compared with the rest of the world.
Ordinary people and students will be more reluctant to indulge in such behavior as they appreciate the effort made by copyright owners who made these products available to them.
Brand awareness
Famous brands are having a hard time these days with so much plagiarism checking and fighting this pest that cripples their cash flow. They are using modern technologies for protecting intellectual property or they employ various methods for verifying their original products.
Those who are trying to duplicate or steal their intellectual property are inventing their ways of going around the copyright owner’s tight security measures. It is a game of cat and mouse that goes on for decades and it is becoming more and more sophisticated every day to that point where it is hard to differentiate the duplicate product from the real thing. Brands like Nike or Mercedes have less to worry about in this department than those whose intellectual property consists of paper articles or any written material at all.
Using online checkers to check for plagiarism free text is one of those ways for controlling this problem, but this method can only detect if an act of plagiarism has already been done. It is good for a start and it can help to stop spreading plagiarised content because in today’s world everything goes viral in an instant.
Just imagine the damage that can be inflicted on those who put so much time and effort into their research without defense mechanisms like these. We need to promote awareness about this problem so more people would be willing to participate in finding an applicable solution for eradicating this pest. The first step that any of us can take is not to use plagiarised content that is available online.
Building a safer world
Even though brand loyalty can slow down this expansion of plagiarism, most people will still buy counterfeited Louis Vuitton purse if they have a chance to do so. Only if a brand name is so solid and a synonym for quality or amazing performance, the consumers will feel an obligation to protect their loving brand and not trust any duplicate version of that product.
If a real deal is as great as the advertisement says, people will not buy that cheap version no matter how much it looks like the original. This is a big lesson for all brands to learn and protect themselves from piracy and counterfeiting with quality and outstanding performance. That way they will leave no place for duplicates to offer any real value that can make them a worthy competition on this global market.
This is a little harder to do with the intellectual property but we are slowly getting there. Developers are using more rigorous and sophisticated verification checking methods and this is the first step of getting the upper hand in this everlasting battle. All these tools combined with an active pursuit of promoting awareness about this issue among the consumers will definitely bring some results in some near future. Intellectual property is as valid as any other asset and we often take it for granted but hopefully, this is about to change. Artists and software developers of all kinds deserve to be compensated for their effort and not be robbed of their hard work.
Conclusion
Piracy of protected trademark products is hurting our economy plus it is hurting the consumers as they are exposed to products of lower quality that just resemble those originals. They do not get access to special offers or premium content or even customer support reserved for the original goods.
One of the tools that I use is plagiarism checker by PapersOwl to quickly and easily scan all articles to make sure that any of my content writers are not plagiarising work. It is free, and works similar to Copyscape, but I believe goes far more in depth.
For those of us creating a blog or outsourcing content, need to make sure that we are not contributing to this problem. It protects us both legally... and morally.