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RafaëllaMES (talk) 10:57, 4 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

Removal Plagiarism tag on the Damascus Affair edit

Hi @Zero0000:! I recently saw you removed my tag in which I signalled plagiarism on the Damascus Affair page. Could you please explain to me why you removed this tag? If you want I can provide you with the link to the Encyclopedia from which this section was largely copy pasted with just minor changes. RafaëllaMES (talk) 07:47, 11 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

I just saw your comment explaining that the work is in the public domain. But just to clarify for myself (since I am not 100% sure about this myself): even though something is taken almost literally from a certain source, this is not called plagiarism if the work is in the public domain? Then what is the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement? See also Wikipedia:Plagiarism paragraph four. Thanks for any clarification! RafaëllaMES (talk) 07:55, 11 March 2021 (UTC)Reply
Hi, the tag you applied is about copyright violation, a legal requirement, but copying from a public domain source is not a violation of copyright law. However, you are correct that it is plagiarism, which is not illegal but is a violation of Wikipedia policy. The difference is roughly that copyright violation is using something without permission and plagiarism is using something without acknowledgement. The best solution is to add a citation indicating where the text came from, with or without paraphrasing. Zerotalk 10:42, 11 March 2021 (UTC)Reply
@Zero0000: Thank you for your explanation! I am still new to Wikipedia, so I am still getting to know all the rules and possibilities.RafaëllaMES (talk) 11:01, 11 March 2021 (UTC)Reply