What Counts As Plagiarism And Why It Matters In Publishing And Classrooms | Ep 378

What Counts As Plagiarism And Why It Matters In Publishing And Classrooms | Ep 378

Plagiarism isn’t a technicality; it’s a trust breaker. We dive straight into what counts as plagiarism, how similarity tools like Turnitin actually work, and why a single percentage never tells the whole story. Drawing on years of university teaching, we unpack thresholds, intent, and proportional consequences, then map those lessons to the publishing world where readers reasonably expect originality or clear attribution. When copied words are sold as fresh work, it doesn’t just undercut creators—it deceives audiences and weakens the entire creative economy.

We also confront a problem that often muddies the waters: online hate. Threats and slurs don’t prove a point; evidence does. So we keep the focus on receipts—side-by-side comparisons, timestamps, archives—and the standards that should guide classrooms, imprints, and platforms alike. Ethics only work when they apply to everyone, not just those without influence. We talk candidly about inconsistent enforcement, the pressure to look the other way, and the long-term cost when communities decide that rules are flexible for the favored few.

If you care about honest work—whether you’re a student, author, editor, or reader—this conversation gives practical steps to protect integrity without turning debate into a shouting match. Quote accurately. Cite clearly. Paraphrase thoughtfully. Correct fast when you slip. Support creators who credit collaborators and sources. And hold institutions to transparent policies that scale consequences with impact and intent. Want to help build a culture where originality thrives and credit flows to its source? Follow, share, and leave a review to keep these conversations visible—and tell us your own rule of thumb for giving credit.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome And Where To Listen

2:00 Why Plagiarism Is Today’s Focus

3:40 Turnitin, Thresholds, And Academic Consequences

11:45 Athletics, Ethics, And Unequal Enforcement

15:20 Defining Plagiarism And Attribution

18:00 Handling Online Hate And Threats

22:15 Allegations Of Plagiarism In Publishing

32:30 Evidence, Receipts, And Public Accountability

40:00 Safety, Standards, And Community Trust

44:30 Our Work, Books, And How To Support

#PlagiarismAwareness #AcademicIntegrity #PublishingEthics #StudentEducation #WritingTips #AvoidPlagiarism #ResearchBestPractices #CitationStyles #IntellectualPropertyRights #EducationalResources #EthicalWriting #ClassroomStandards #ContentCreationEthics #ScholarlyPublishing #OriginalityMatters #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices378

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Where To Listen
• 2:00 Why Plagiarism Is Today’s Focus
• 3:40 Turnitin, Thresholds, And Academic Consequences
• 11:45 Athletics, Ethics, And Unequal Enforcement
• 15:20 Defining Plagiarism And Attribution
• 18:00 Handling Online Hate And Threats
• 22:15 Allegations Of Plagiarism In Publishing
• 32:30 Evidence, Receipts, And Public Accountability
• 40:00 Safety, Standards, And Community Trust
• 44:30 Our Work, Books, And How To Support

Transcript

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Uh, wherever you may be, across the world, here in the United States. Uh, we just want to say uh we're grateful to have you with us. Uh we are uh pushing our way towards uh 400 total episodes, and that's because of you. So thank you. Uh you can watch and listen, and as you know, on YouTube as well as Rumble, and you can listen everywhere. iHeart, Spotify, uh, and Amazon, uh Podcast Index, Podcast Addict, there's so many choices for you to choose from. They're all free. Uh, and and there's one additional free one that uh we've been asked about that we we haven't always been sharing. So we're gonna continue sharing, and that is if you head on over to www.voices for voices.org forward slash podcast, and that'll bring up the whole list of our whole catalog over 375 plus episodes, uh, and it brings up at the very top the most recent episode that we have filmed. Uh and and that's a that's a positive because I've noticed uh some of these uh awesome podcast platforms uh that make you scroll all the way down. And when you have as many episodes as we do, and we're blessed to have uh it could take uh a few seconds to do and it can get frustrating. So we we recommend as uh an alternative uh if uh if you'd like, you can head on over to voicesforvoices.org forward slash podcast. Thank you for joining us. We're so just honored to have you uh with us. We have been uh the last 30 days, I believe we've filmed and dropped 32 to 33 episodes. Depends on what point of day that uh you know we we make those calculations because we're we're usually filming uh at least every two to three days. Some days we're filming two, three episodes, and sometimes we go and uh we have a a break of uh you know like a week or so, uh, because uh we we all need a break from time to time, and that's okay. So thank you for joining us. We're gonna be talking about something that is near and dear to our voices for voices, publishing uh area of voices for voices, and that is the term plagiarism. Um, what I'm going to do, I think, is to make things a little bit easier, is to get us started. I'm gonna take us on over to uh plagiarism. All right, so plagiarism on the uh educational front. So having been an instructor on the uh the collegiate front, undergrad, uh, in-person, remote, uh MBA courses, uh undergrad, of course, uh all kinds of uh all kinds of uh uh individuals because everybody's unique. And unfortunately, I've I've had a couple instances where uh plagiarism has uh actually occurred and it is not something that is fun to talk about. Uh but what we use, what was integrated into our uh our assignment, kind of our digital assignment, uh turn in is uh it's called Turn It In, right? Turn it in, kind of makes sense, right? And it would uh so we would you know upload uh all the students' work and we would get you know a score and information on uh you know how likely uh it was that you know bits and pieces, parts, or maybe even the whole project was plagiarized. And we would uh we would use that to kind of guide our uh guide our uh our grading uh as well as any additional uh conversations that needed to be had with students. Um, you know, we we look at you know from a let's say a hundred percent in this case would be the entire paper, the entire project would be plagiarized, meaning the entire project, entire paper was written and turned in uh somewhere along the line, and that's not good. You want to have a score as close to zero percent, you know, five to ten percent usually is uh basically acceptable because there's sometimes you know certain sentences and certain ways of saying uh certain uh actions. Uh there's only maybe a couple different ways of saying that. And and so it makes a little bit of sense that you know there's gonna be some overlap, but that's why we look at and say, okay, let's look at 10 versus 70. 10 that's kind of in line uh with the norm. Again, we want it to be zero percent, but when we look at again in this hypothetical example, uh, you know, 10 versus 70, well, that paper, that project that was 70 plagiarized uh with a high degree of confidence, that is cause for concern. And so that would prompt conversations, uh, further conversations with uh myself, the student, oftentimes the dean, uh the the section head. So if it was marketing, it'd be the marketing, if it was uh those management, and it'd be you know management, economics, etc. That's kind of how that would work. And then we would we would talk about uh you know what would occur, and we we would look at conversations and what the students would say. Sometimes students would freely admit a it's on a time crunch, it happened, I didn't mean to do it, uh I won't do it again. And so then we would take that into our uh into our decision making as far as you know everything from doing nothing, which I'm not a big proponent of, uh, to you know getting a zero on that particular assignment, but not affecting the whole uh the whole class per se, meaning that if this is a marketing uh 101 course and halfway through the the term is when this happens, and there's a 70% with good uh with a high degree of confidence that the 70% was plagiarized, uh then we would have decision to make of okay, well that's an automatic zero on the assignment. So if it was a 200-point assignment, that's a zero. Uh because we don't as we don't as human beings really as much as we want to say that oh, I won't do it again, that word gets around. Trust me. That word gets around. Oh, Professor So and so, I did this and I just got a zero. Well, there's escalations that can occur. If said student, 70%. Actually, let's let's call it 80%, let's call it 80 to 100%, because I've had 100% matches, meaning the exact same paper project was turned in verbatim, except the name. And in those cases, we have decisions to make. Wasn't sure who did what, when, and we we run into this whole athletics and education and this whole thing of well, they play athletics, so you know, not only given a zero points on an assignment, we can take it to that next level that says, okay, we're gonna take the point level. Let's say there's a thousand points in class, and let's say ninety percent is an A. There's been times where I've opted to take all the points, so basically taking those a hundred points and tossing them out the window so that there's no way that the student is able to get an A in class at the overall grade that makes a difference. Then there's the third escalation point, and this is some there's some scar tissue around that for me because uh I mean just coming right out and saying the same thing. They're athletes, you know, we can't get them kicked out of even though on the syllabus, the syllabi, even though it says if you plagiarize that you can be administratively removed from class, meaning you're kicked out of class and you got to retake class that particular course at a different time. Well, at this time, I'm talking about you know, the dean didn't want that because we're we're talking about athletes. And I'm all for watching athletics, I'm all for rooting and cheering on certain teams and that, just like we all probably are to an extent. But I also having a master's degree went through two ethics courses on top of ethics being covered in just about eat each and every other uh course along the way, you know, ethics and business, ethics and management, and you get the idea, ethics and marketing. And so I was basically said, Well, we can't kick them out of class, even though that's what should happen because these papers were identical, and these students came in brazen and said, Oh, I don't know what happened. You know, we worked on it together, but no, I didn't copy him, he didn't copy me. Okay, we're putting paper A, paper B together, or side by side. Tell me the difference. Oh, well, the name and the date. Okay. So uh paper, the only thing that different it's different than the name, I think there should be punishment for that. Uh, I know going through my education, I sure as blank uh would have been kicked out of my class if that would have happened, if I would have done that. And so that was my decision. I wanted to do that, but the dean said, no, no, no, no, we can't do that. They're athletes, and you know, that would take them out of being eligible for their sport. Have you mind it? Our sports teams are not that great. Not that that should make a difference, because it shouldn't. But our teams aren't even that great, so we're sending a wrong message. And so I wasn't able to administratively withdraw them, the two students, the athletes, even though they should have. So plagiarism. Let's find out exactly what that is, since I've taken about ten minutes. Um plagiarism meaning. Alright. So from Wikipedia. Is plagiarism, which is spelled P-L-A-G-I-A-R-I-S-M, is a noun N-O-U-N. The definition that I want to bring up is an instance of plagiarizing, especially a passage. So a written work. A passage that is taken from the work of one person and reproduced in the work of another without attribution. So it's one thing if there would have been attribution, if there was a sentence or two, right? We we see this all the time. Uh after a sporting event, after a tragedy, you know, there's there's attribution of where information comes from. And so there was no attribution on those examples that I gave. There's no attribution of, hey, this whole paper is attributed to this student, and vice versa, that didn't happen. So there's no attribution, and it was one person, one student, turning in the exact same work as the other. So it's basically a one-for-one, except for the name, uh difference on the on the paper, uh it itself, the project. So that's what the definition is. And you might be asking why, you know, this is a mental health, the trauma, recovery. Uh, we talk about uh, you know, mental health, mental illness, we talk about uh mythical creatures around the world. Uh we're heavily talking about voices for voices publishing, which is the uh the arm of voices for voices, like uh that is connected to the uh publishing side of things. So I bring up plagiarism, and my I've already had experience with this. So this isn't me just making something up. Uh this isn't me placing blame where blame shouldn't be uh shouldn't be given uh or bringing up this topic. Uh first and foremost, I like to say, uh, we've been getting some really nasty comments on on our videos. I mean, really nasty. Uh and so I'm gonna say this. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Period, full stop. Turn on a different show, turn on a different podcast. You're not gonna hurt my feelings, you're not gonna hurt anybody, any of our guests or uh anybody, anybody's feelings. Just do that, it makes things much easier, much simpler. Because if you have so much time in your day or night, evening, morning, afternoon, that you can sit on a TikTok live and then just start spewing hate. Uh some may be considered death threats. Uh, we do have the first amendment, but when we start talking about death threats and and the like, that's that's where that privilege of the First Amendment, freedom of speech, that's where that ends, is when you you start you know threatening uh people. And so I wanted to share that as well as we're we're working our way through this episode. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Turn something else on. Uh we're not forcing you to watch, we're not forcing you to listen, we're not doing any of that. We're just having a show, a podcast, like many, many, many, many, many, many other institutions, individuals, organizations have. So just turn ours off. Don't even tune in. And so it just blows me away how some of these comments. Uh I I think I counted on one video there was almost a hundred and seventy not just negative comments, uh, right? We had that first amendment, but when we start calling people POS, uh spelling it out, using the F word, uh making what could be considered death threats. And again, this is serious business here. Uh, I don't think anybody wants to have any of that happen. Um, because we value life, we value all of us. As we say, we not only pray for ourselves, but we pray for you and the entire world, even if you are an enemy of ours, even if you are a competitor of ours, even if you are plagiarizing, which is what this episode is going to transition to, even if you are plagiarizing, Morgan Busse, B-U-S-S-E, last name, uh plagiarize from uh mythical creatures around the world. And there's many, many, many, many, many more. And so just like Turnitin is a tool that's used in the education space, uh, to look at uh the degree, the percentage of uh a post, uh yeah uh piece of work, uh a project, a paper, and cl again, the closer we get to 100%, uh the the worse it looks for the person who turned in or is publishing books, selling them, putting them on sale for people to buy when Morgan we we have the data, so just we're not making this stuff up. I've had the experience in education space. First off, I got my master's, a real master's degree. I took it in person, I've done international travel, I've done a lot of things. I've taught for over 10 years at a university, I've taught in person with some of the hostile students known to a person. I taught through the COVID uh online. Uh I've developed courses, uh, so worked to put courses that were uh primarily in person and uh worked to uh get those courses uh so that they could be uh used uh remotely. So again, first first thing, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't comment. We don't want to hear it, nobody wants to hear it. Because these things could be potentially turned over to law enforcement, and that's not on me. That's not on us, that's on you. So you, the person, the people that are taking time out of your day, your night, your afternoon, dispute hate on our TikTok lives, our Instagram lives, our Facebook lives, our you know, TV show and podcast about certain guests, about me, about the organization, using uh some of the most vulgar language I've ever heard. Um, and these are coming from people who uh Bryan Davis, uh Masters and Slayers, who in the back of your book you wrote a song, and there's footage that we've shown where you've had children singing a song in the woods talking about mutilating, penetrating. Uh I mean when I heard about that, I didn't believe it at first. I was like, nah, that's that's just that's way out there. Then when I saw it, I just you know, disbelief came in. But then I started to see some of these these comments that you know you're making up uh profile names on TikTok, you're logging into TikTok lives that we have, and you're spewing even there some of the brutalist language and comments, just absolutely sickening. And so again, you made your bed, and that's that's what we're gonna say about that. So getting back here, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Turn the channel, turn us off. You're not gonna hurt my feelings. We're making a huge difference across the world. We're gonna surpass helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. We've already eclipsed that 300 episode uh number total that we are gonna have at the end of uh calendar 2025. Uh this, I believe, is episode uh 377 or 378. We're gonna have at least 400 total episodes by the end of calendar 2025. So don't underestimate David. Don't underestimate David, even if you're you're Goliath. Uh say not anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Turn channel, turn us off, that's okay. Uh if you see we have a TikTok live, Facebook Live, Instagram live, turn on something else. Turn something on something else. It's better for you in the long run. Uh, because as you know, there are things called digital footprints, and you're just making and continuing to make a digital footprint each and every time you you want to pull and put some uh some very um very disgusting language. Uh and then the plagiarism, so we bring things right back, right? It's called the weave. You know, we we head on out, and now we're heading back. We're talking about plagiarism, Morgan, Morgan Busse, Morgan Busse, Morgan Busse, that is M-O-R-G-A-N, last name Busse B-U-S-S-E. That individual that what we believe is a woman uh has the highest plagiarism percentage looking at mythical creatures around the world Facebook page. So, Morgan, you have a lot of explaining to do. Let me say that again. Morgan, you have a lot of explaining to do. Power three. Morgan, you have a lot of explaining to do. Why do you feel the need that you have to uh you have to plagiarize, you have to copy verbatim quite a bit of information and put it in books and writing that you're selling, making people think that those are those are your exact words when they're not all of them are, and in fact, quite a high percentage of the words aren't. So you need to step forward, step to the play, and you need to explain yourself why what made you decide to use mythical creatures around the world in your writing so much so that you're plagiarizing, not given attribution to who it's due to. Is that because the person behind mythical creatures around the world is one of the hottest and top authors of our day of all time? That's my guess. But I don't nobody cares what my guess is. We want to hear from you. We want you to explain. We want you to explain to your fans. We want it we want you to explain to Realm. We want you to explain to each and every person that's ever bought one of your your uh works, your books, anything written by you. We want you to step up and you to explain it. See a lot of you may or may not know is when we come and we talk about things, we bring evidence. We bring the receipt. However, the other side, all you bring are words. You don't have the evidence you pull are the very words that you've spoken that are on YouTube to this day. Children, young children singing songs in the back, uh singing the song in the back of Masters and Slayers, Bryan Davis. So it's talking to you. Hello. Welcome to another episode. We appreciate you tuning in, but we would rather you not because you're not helping yourself out by having these children 15 plus years ago. And there's some sick contest and being okay with that. See, that's where Voices for Voices publishing, mythical creatures around the world, that's where parents and guardians can be sure that when you're handed and when you buy one of our works, it is safe, it is clean, as opposed to when you buy uh other Christian fantasy that's out there. People are sick and tired of the BS that the comp our competition on the Christian fantasy writing. People are sick and tired of that. And now I know a good bit why. It's because of the plagiarism. We also know David Solomon ghost wrote for you, Bryan Davis, at a very young age. We do know that. That's called a fact. That's called evidence. Prove that it's not the case. Bring your evidence that shows that that's not the case. Because we matched each and every element that you you put together in uh in a document, and we had and still have the evidence on every single one of those. So it's also time for you to step out of the shadows, Bryan. And Scott, Scott Minor, who's not even an author. It was only after one of our shows, I believe, month months ago. He put together some 50-60 page pamphlet, book, booklet. I don't I don't know. Uh but see, we're we're talking about the light, we're talking about helping people. And so we just want people to know who are watching and listening, the Voices for Voices, that we bring the receipts, we bring the information. The people that are over on the other side, uh, they're bringing a lot of words, they're bringing lip service. They don't have the evidence, they don't have facts. The facts they have are that we quoted what they actually said. So it's not our fault that you actually said it. It's not. It's your fault you actually said it. So this whole plagiarizing thing. People know the humans make mistakes. We're not sinless, Bryan Davis. You'd think you are Scott Minor. Probably Morgan as well. I don't know. I can only guess that you know that by plagiarizing so much of your work, taking after, plagiarizing from mythical creatures around the world, and who knows where else you plagiarize from and did not give attribution. You guys, you I don't mean guys as in that you're all guys, just mean you individuals have a lot of explaining to do. Because I tell you what, if somebody, if somebody was coming and saying things that were false, I'd be coming on here and talking about, which I have, and I am, and we have, and we've had guess, and guess with evidence. People don't want to see to that, they don't want to hear it. They want to just pretend like it's not there, that we just we just forget about that. This isn't about power. This is about what's right and what's not right. What's right is having a Facebook page, posting original content, and giving attribution where where it is due, which is exactly what David Solomon does. As opposed to Morgan Busse. Morgan Busse. Again, I apologize if I'm speaking the uh your last name wrong. I all I know is is the spelling. B-U-S-S-E. You have a lot of explaining to do. So you need to come forward on. I mean, you're I think you're I think you're jealous, you're envious of mythical creatures around the world. You know the quality of it, so I think that's part of the plagiarism. I think you're envious that you can't write something original that's as good as what David has and who he has attribution to. And so we look in the mirror every day, and you should be looking in the mirror every day, too, and asking yourself, why am I and why have I plagiarized so much of mythical creatures around the world and passed off that work because that's the person that has the most, the highest percentage of plagiarism from her work, Morgan's work, that people can purchase. So you're lying to your fans, you're lying to your readers, and I think you know, as just a human being, I think you owe them an apology for starters. You owe them a public apology. Say, you know what? I've made bad judgments over the course of my life. Some of those of which is I have taken uh verbatim some information, some posts from mythical creatures around the world from David Solomon, and I've used that as my own, not giving attribution, which means you're just writing it as if it's your own. You're not using quotation marks. I don't even know. Do you know how to use quotation marks? Maybe you don't, I don't know. I'm not uh I don't proclaim to be some great writer. I just claim to be an expert on myself, and that's what I share. And our guests, that's what they share. They're experts on themselves. So, Morgan, you have a lot of explaining to do. Bryan, you have a lot of explaining to do. Scott, you have a lot of explaining to do. Leading an organization that has these individuals part of your organization. So I ask you this, Scott Minor. Is the organization you're leading, is that is that still an organization that you that you're happy with? Is that are you happy? Are you happy now knowing that you have at least two individuals that we've uh discussed? And you know what? Let's close it out strong. Von Ollman, also part of your organization, marries children. Can lie all you want about it, you can pretend that this uh that the sky isn't falling when it is, you can pretend it's not sunny when it is. Von Ollman marries children. This is something that's publicly known across at least one state, if not more. And this information, and there's so much of it. The one article where Vaughn was gonna have one of his retreats, I guess is what he calls them. Uh the Salvation Army owned and owns, may own current day. This this was uh I think a couple years ago. And so Vaughn was gonna have one of his retreats there. And this is way before Voices for Voices, so you can't even blame it on us. You can't say we're fabricating. Uh you can, but you're lying. Uh I think by now there's a lot of people knowing that you're lying and have been lying for years and years and years. But the Salvation Army, once they they heard and they actually found out what you're doing, Vaughn, what did they do? They said, sorry, can't have your retreat here. That's a fact. We've shown that. We showed that on one of our shows, I believe. We we did that. So we are voices for voices. We are Voices for Voices publishing. Go purchase our comic book, the Atalan. You can spell that A-T-A-L-A-N. David Solomon's writer, he's the author, content creator, songwriter, actor. There's not there's not anything that I know of that he can't do in the entertainment space. And uh so this is his first uh first comic that he is uh he's he's written. And so Voices for Voices Publishing. We have five five uh five written uh books for sale on Amazon.com. We did a TikTok the other night, and we actually went we went down the list sharing information about each one of those. So if you're looking for ideas for the holidays, check the age ranges. A lot of them you can get in print and in uh electronic Kindle form. And I think there may be one or two that as of uh the filming of the show we we have in uh the uh the electronic Kindle version only at this point. So thank you for all the love and support you've given us. Uh we're sending that back to you. We're praying for everybody, not just ourselves and our family and friends, and uh we're we're praying for everybody across the world, whether you're our enemies, whether you're our friends, uh, whether you're our competition. We want people to live a prosperous life, whatever that is to them, but also to do that safely and not hurt other people when you're doing that. We are voices for voices. Go ahead, smash that subscribe button, like, follow, share, big thumbs up. That all is free to do, and it helps us reach more people to get closer to and to go past helping three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. We're everywhere, media-wise, and we also recommend you head on over to Amazon.com, check out Voices for Voices Publishing, grab a copy or two of our works. There's more to come. We love each and every one of you. Uh and if you're able to, if you don't have a Facebook profile, please create one. It's free to do. Yeah, so we love those free things. And follow mythical creatures around the world. Help us get to that hundred thousand mark of followers, which are even our competition so jealous and envious that they don't have that many followers themselves. So that's just the plain old that's just that's just the truth there. We're not fabricating, making making something of it's the truth. And again, pick your favorite audio platform for the voices for voices TV show and podcast. You can also watch it on YouTube, on Rumble, on our uh on our channels or voices for voices channels, and last but not least, if none of those are options, but you're able to put a URL in to do a search. Why don't you do a search for voices or voices.org, which is ORG, forward slash podcast. That's voicesf or voices.org/podcast, and one more time, voices, for voices.org forward slash podcast. We love each and every one of you. We hope you have a blessed day. Even if you're you're not a believer, that's that's okay. Uh we love everybody just uh just the same. So have a great rest of your your day, your evening, your afternoon, and you can you can uh just uh continue being yourselves and uh reaching out if you'd like to be on the show sometime. So we'll see you next time. Bye bye for now.