Plagiarism: Who's work is it?

        Plagiarism can be defined as using someone else's work and expressing it as your own work without acknowledging the author. There are many other ways plagiarism can be seen as passing someones ideas off as your own work, to use someones work without crediting them, or to present new information from an already existing source. I know that plagiarism is illegal and that it is wrong to plagiarize in any setting. I find it confusing that although plagiarism is illegal it is not a civil or criminal offense. Examples of plagiarism include turning in someones homework as your own, copying someones word's or ideas without giving them credit.
         I find it interesting and honestly did not know that even if you have permission to use someone's work from the author, it is still considered wrong and the work will still be considered plagiarized. I feel like if you have the permission and authorization to use it in a lesson or as a reference it should not be a problem. I also did not know that there were different types of plagiarism such as whole-paper plagiarism, cut-and-paste plagiarism. I also knew plagiarism was a serious matter, but i did not know juniors and seniors in college would be expelled for a semester.
         I agree that plagiarism is a serious matter, but I also think it is important for schools to educate their students and not just assume they know about plagiarism and what kind of referencing or copying is appropriate or inappropriate.