Plagiarism — Passing off others’ work as your own 

If you pass off the work of others as your own, you commit plagiarism. Intention does not matter. It is an academic breach and a disciplinary offence and may lead to disciplinary measures (up to dismissal or expulsion). When the use also violates copyright law, it can trigger civil or criminal copyright claims. “Plagiarism” is an ethical/institutional concept; it is not itself a statutory offence under Dutch law. 

It is therefore key to cite the work of others and to not forget this when it comes to your own prior work to avoid plagiarism and selfplagiarism. 

Copyright infringement occurs when you use a protected work in ways reserved to the copyright‑holder without permission or a legal exception. Common infringing acts include reproduction, distribution and making a work public (for example, public presentation, online posting or streaming).

Key risk situations: 

  • Reproducing, distributing or adapting a protected work without permission (or contrary to licence terms). 
  • Using a work where no statutory exception (e.g. quotation, educational uses) applies. 

Practical note: attribution alone does not prevent infringement — check copyright status, licences and exceptions before using any material. See the page about exceptions to copyright for the details. 

Plagiarism and copyright can overlap, but are separate: plagiarism concerns attribution and academic honesty; copyright concerns legal rights to use a work. Under Dutch law, some exceptions that permit use — notably quotation and certain educational uses — explicitly require you to acknowledge the source and author; failure to do so removes the legal basis for the exception. Licence terms may also impose attribution requirements. Examples: 

  • A Creative Commons licence may require attribution, which also serves as a citation element (creator name, title, link). 
  • You may properly cite a source in a paper (scholarly citation), but still infringe copyright if you reproduce the work without permission and the licence or copyright law requires a separate credit or permission. 
  • Adding an attribution line to an image on a website (“Photo: A. Smith — CC BY 4.0”) fulfils licence terms but may not satisfy academic citation conventions for a bibliography. 
  • Including an image in your paper that is in the public domain (e.g. copyright expired or published under CC0) without any citation or attribution line constitutes plagiarism, but not copyright infringement. 

Practical rule of thumb:
Do both where required: follow licence attribution instructions for legal compliance and add a formal citation in your text/references for academic integrity.

Institutional policy and learning resources