Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the copying or imitating of another author's work and passing it off as one's own. This is illegal.

The most common form of copyright infringement is the physical act of copying. Anytime a copyrightable piece is copied by someone other than the owner without permission, and is not fair use or otherwise excused, the material's copyright has been infringed. Exact copying is not required for infringement: taking a copyrighted piece and altering it in order to disguise it is still considered infringement.