The crime of plagiarism: a proposal for criminal regulation of copyright infringement

Abstract

Plagiarism has been considered one of the most serious and intolerable copyright infringements, which is why it has been criminalized in different legal systems. However, the lack of clarity about the concept of plagiarism and its unlawfulness has generated uncertainty and legal insecurity in the creation and application of the criminal regulation of this copyright infringement. As a possible solution to this problem, this paper proposes a technical concept of plagiarism and a criminal formula that describes and regulates it in its entirety, as an infringement by antonomasia of the prerogatives recognized to the author of his work.