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Tuesday, November 3, 2020

He could pay four to eight years in prison and fines of $263 million to $877 million for copyright infringement.

In these times of excessive virtuality, falling into the temptation to plagiarize may be greater for some since with just two clicks, with the famous copy and paste, you can commit a crime in terms of copyright.

However, regardless of where they are violated, these rights are protected by Colombian law and, if they are violated, you could be subject to civil or criminal sanctions.

According to Edgar León, an expert in copyright, if the affectation is of a moral nature, that is to say, that there is a link between the author and his creation, compensation for the damages would be given. Likewise, it could carry prison sentences of between 32 to 90 months and fines of 26.66 to 300 smmlv, that is, about $263 million.

On the other hand, if the violation of copyright generates patrimonial affectation because a public reproduction of the work is made, the Penal Code in its article 271 stipulates penalties that range from four to eight years and fines of 26.66 to 1,000 minimum wages, that is, up to $877 million.

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But what is copyright itself? According to the National Directorate of Copyright (Dnda), you should start by knowing that this is a concept with legal power that grants protection to works, whether literary, artistic, scientific or of any kind, to reaffirm that said creation is of a specific author and that, therefore, may not be reproduced without his permission.

THE CONTRASTS

In this way, the figure of plagiarism is one of the many ways of violating copyright. The modalities of this scourge vary. However, there are some that are more common.

There is literal cloning, which, according to León, is when a work is presented as one's own. There is also mosaic, which is basically copying and fitting information from multiple sources in a coherent way; or the Remix, which is when paragraphs taken from other authors are paraphrased. Perhaps a very common and skillful one when it comes to plagiarism is when fragments of a work or text are copied and keywords are changed.

But beware, taking your own work and passing it off as something new or original is also plagiarism. However, in this the penal sanction is exempt.

To avoid future problems, it is always advisable to refer to the owner or obtain the right of reproduction. “The name of the author and the source must be indicated when extracts from the work of a third party are used, either verbatim or in paraphrase,” explained Marcela Palacio, director of the Intellectual Property area of ​​the firm Palacio & Abogados.

Today, authors have technological tools to prevent this misuse. The most used is Turnitin, which is paid. However, as the idea is always to prevent, signs such as the logo that says Copyright indicate that it is a work that is subject to copyright.

In the event that an author realizes that he has been plagiarized, Carolina Romero, director general of the Dnda, pointed out that legal and precautionary actions can be taken, as well as resorting to conciliation when it is for patrimonial rights.

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