Copyright allows an author to take ownership of something that they produce. Such productions which would be protected include "music, pictures, software, video, etc." However the productions must meet certain criteria in order to be protected: It must be produced in a physical medium such as a newspaper or a book, it must be original, it must be authentic, and it must be more than just a name or a title. Copyright also allows an author to gain protection against unauthorized reproduction of their product. That way their product is not being sold by unauthorized parties and they don't lose financial benefits and/or recognition in the future.
Copyright infringement occurs when the author's product is reproduced without their authorization. Essentially if the author's work is represented in a medium other than the author's without their permission, or if their music is reproduced at all without their permission, then copyright infringement has occurred. Most of the time in order for someone to use an author's work they must contact the author and gain their authorization. For example, if an entire chapter from a book is copied without the author's permission then Copyright infringement has occurred. However aside from the criteria listed above that a product must meet in order to be protected by Copyright laws, there is also the fair-use doctrine which also allows others to use an author's work without their authorization. One can use part of the author's work in order to borrow a quote from it, whether it's from a book, a magazine, an article, or music. Most of the time the quote(s) would be used for commentary for one's own work or used for criticism. Parody, which is an "exaggerated imitation" of another person's publication also falls under the fair-use doctrine. For example if a quote or a line belongs to the original author, then the author borrowing that quote or that line will significantly alter it so that while the original author's idea may still be present, the context itself is different. For example, the original title or a publication could read "The Great Gatsby," but a publication using parody could have a title that reads "The Gray Gatsby." Ultimately as long as the entire publication is not copied however the fair-use doctrine protects the user from copyright infringement.
Academic dishonesty is what it sounds like: "a violation of ethical trust." Essentially it involves presenting one's work as their own when it is actually someone else's and includes cheating, deception and fabrication. It is different from a copyright violation however because a copyright violation is just using someone else's work without their permission, whereas academic dishonesty is actually producing someone else's work in the form of their own in efforts to gain unfair advantages. Specifically, this is plagiarism. An example of plagiarism includes presenting quotes from a scholarly journal as one's own without crediting the author.
There are several types of Copyright, but the type that will be discussed here is Software. Within this type of Copyright there are several laws that must be examined. One in particular pertains to the software licensing agreements. Essentially when one installs software, they are not literally purchasing the software, but they are instead "leas[ing] it from the company." Therefore even though software is on one's computer they do not own it, so it would be illegal to duplicate and distribute the software onto other computers, which is called software piracy. There are exceptions to this law however: shareware allows one to download a product for free before purchasing it, which doesn't necessarily force once to enter an agreement to not redistribute the product. Another is freeware which is available for download to the public. Lastly open-source software is also free to the public and its purpose is for companies to advertise their products through this type of software.
Copyleft is a method of creating a program and all of its versions online for free. One can grant authorization for others to use their program by grouping a Creative Commons license with their product. That way others don't have to go through the process of contacting the producer for permission to use their product. Ultimately the product would become public domain and anyone could use it easily.
