Did Guillaume Musso plagiarize Diana Katalayi Ilunga’s work, as she claims? Is the Christmas video featuring the wolf from Intermarché a plagiarism of the children’s book *Un Noël pour le loup * by Thierry Dedieu? Is the song * On va s’aimer *, performed by Gilbert Montagné, a plagiarism of the song * Une fille de France *, performed by Gianni Nazzaro?
These cases highlight the rights that the author of a work possesses over its use. Born in the 18th century, following the rise of printing, copyright protects works of all kinds (musical, pictorial, audiovisual) and forms the link between defending the interests of creators and the need to allow the circulation of knowledge and works.
Copyright issues aren’t just for creative professionals. Anyone can encounter them in their daily life, whether at work or in their studies. With social media providing access to a multitude of works and artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly prevalent, it’s easy to infringe on authors’ rights, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Recognizing that many students were unaware of copyright principles when writing their papers, we, along with other teacher-researchers and under the guidance of Marie Latour , created the MOOC “Steal-Paste: Stop Plagiarism ,” whose objective is to raise awareness of intellectual property rules among students, particularly at the Master’s and doctoral levels. Let’s revisit some of its key issues.
What is copyright?
Copyright law protects any original work of the mind, that is, any work bearing the imprint of the author’s personality and reflecting a creative contribution. The law is comprised of two categories of rights.
Economic rights allow the author to control the use of their work. This means they can authorize or prohibit the reproduction, performance, or adaptation of their work. Economic rights can be the subject of licensing agreements and benefit the author for their lifetime and their heirs for seventy years after their death . After this period, the work enters the public domain and can be freely used.
Moral rights guarantee the author the respect of their name and the integrity of their work. Unlike economic rights, they are inalienable and imprescriptible. Even after the author’s death, their heirs can ensure that their status as author is respected and that the work is not distorted . For example, although the work has entered the public domain, Victor Hugo’s descendants retain a perpetual moral right to Les Misérables , which would allow them to oppose the adaptation of the work into a comedy.
A teacher holds copyright to their course material as long as it is original. Therefore, any use of this course requires their permission, including by the students to whom it is taught. A student may not record a lecture, regardless of the recording method (video, audio, photos), and distribute it, whether free of charge or for a fee, without the teacher’s consent.
Furthermore, if the recording includes the teacher’s image or voice without their consent, this constitutes an infringement of their personality rights and data protection rights . Conversely, students also benefit from copyright on their work, provided it is original. A teacher cannot therefore appropriate a student’s work or use it without their permission.
Exceptions to copyright
In principle, any representation, reproduction, or modification of a work is subject to the author’s authorization. However, in certain cases, the law stipulates that a person may represent or reproduce a work without obtaining the author’s consent. Among these exceptions, the right of quotation and the educational exception are particularly used in academic contexts.
The right of quotation allows the use of an extract from a protected work without authorization, if three cumulative conditions are met: the quotation must be short, it must be justified by a critical, educational, scientific or informative purpose, and it must clearly indicate the name of the author and the source.
Reproducing entire pages in a dissertation or thesis cannot be covered by the right of quotation and therefore constitutes plagiarism.
The academic exception allows teachers and researchers to use certain works in a strictly educational context. For example, a teacher may show a film clip or an excerpt from an article in class to illustrate a lesson. However, showing the entire film or article without permission is prohibited.
Plagiarism or inspiration?
In copyright law, the line between plagiarism and inspiration is sometimes thin. Plagiarism involves the unauthorized reproduction of a work without attribution. Inspiration, on the other hand, is a creative process that draws on existing ideas or styles to produce a new work.
Since ideas are not protected as such by copyright, they are said to be in the public domain. Anyone can take them and give them an original expression. Thus, an author who writes a mystery featuring an eccentric detective, endowed with impeccable logic and a keen sense of observation strongly reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, but with his own character traits, a different context, and a new plot, would remain within the realm of inspiration.
On the other hand, if the author takes up dialogues, emblematic scenes or plots almost identical to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, without transforming or citing them, this could be considered plagiarism.
The courts assess each case individually, examining the degree of similarity, the author’s intention, and whether the new work offers genuine originality or merely copies the form of the earlier work. The dividing line, therefore, lies in how effectively the author manages to inject true originality into their narrative.
Inspiration involves taking an idea and adapting it, while plagiarism involves using an original expression of that idea. For example, a student tasked with writing a commentary on The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry consults a website offering a detailed analysis of the book. If the student reads the analysis to better understand the work and then writes their own text, using their own words and examples, the analysis sheet will only serve as inspiration. However, if they copy several sentences from the sheet, changing only a few words while maintaining the structure and developing the ideas in the same order, without citing the source, they are guilty of plagiarism.
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting copyright law because it uses existing works to produce new content. AI can reuse protected elements without permission, sometimes subtly, making it difficult to distinguish between inspiration and reproduction.
The authors of the original works rightly fear that their works will be exploited without recognition or remuneration and that the massive use of existing works by AI will weaken the economic model of creation.
The question also arises of who owns the rights to a work generated by AI: do they belong to the AI user, the software designer, or no one, since AI has no legal personality? Currently, most jurisdictions that have had to rule on copyright protection claims for creations made by AI have rejected these claims.
However, some decisions have granted protection to works generated by AI. In January 2025, the US Copyright Office agreed to grant copyright protection to the work A Single Piece of American Cheese, created using the Invoke AI , notably due to evidence of decisive human intervention.
In 2023, a Beijing court had already ruled that the AI user who created the disputed image was indeed the copyright holder. These decisions highlight the need to consider adapting copyright law or creating a hybrid protection system.
Using AI in academic work can be helpful, but it also exposes students to real risks of plagiarism, often without them realizing it. AI tools can generate sentences or formulations very similar to existing texts, without necessarily citing the source. If a student simply copies and pastes the text into their work, they may unintentionally commit plagiarism. Therefore, AI should be used for understanding, not copying; ideas should be reformulated in one’s own words, and all information should be verified to minimize the risks.
Failure to respect copyright can have serious consequences, both financial and reputational. It is therefore essential to raise awareness among users, whether students or teachers, about the proper use of copyright as early as possible.
Author Bio: Rose-Marie Borges is a Senior Lecturer (HDR) in Private Law at Clermont Auvergne University (UCA)
