Cite Your Source, or You're A Thief
Most people are aware that presenting someone else's work as yours (quotes, pictures, anything where you don't give credit) isn't quite honest. Yet people don't seem to realize it's illegal, and you can be sued for it, face fines or serious professional reprocussions. Students caught plagiarizing will usually get an F, and in some institutions they'll be suspended or even kicked out.
On the net it's a serious problem, because once YOU steal someone's work without giving credit, it's lost its author information, and then others may think it's public domain and post it on THEIR site. It's like stealing someone's car and then leaving it in a parking lot with the doors unlocked, the plates removed, and the key in the ignition.
Even if something doesn't explicitly say, "All Rights Reserved," it's not available for the taking. Nope, sorry, you MIGHT get away with it, but you can still be nailed for it, and it's not good practice for the reason I mentioned above.
It's So EASY to Cite Your Source!
In an informal setting, you can just post something like, "Credit: Name" and/or a link to the site you got it from.
What's Fair Use?
You can't just take someone else's photo or post their whole article, but quoting excerpts from their work or posting a few stills from a movie for critique, commentary, educational purposes or as a review will usually be condoned as Fair Use. You should still cite your source.
Paraphrasing -- Changing the Wording -- Is Still Plagiarism
Even fewer people understand that if you paraphrase something, lifting a few phrases from here and there and altering the words slightly, you STILL are stealing: you've just repainted the car. I've had to fail students for that, and I hate doing so.
But I'm Not Making Money From It!
We are often guilty of "I'm not making any money off of it, so it's okay" reasoning, and I confess I've done that myself for a few graphics featuring images of well-known people/things like R2-D2 on my own web pages. In that case the problem isn't that one's pretending to be the author, because anyone who hasn't spent the last 30 years under a rock will recognize it; however, authors/owners retain the right to decide how their work is used.
Fandom: In Legal Limbo
Copyright law hasn't caught up with the fandom phenomenon. Most authors/studios turn a blind eye to fan sites celebrating their books/movies/TV shows/video games, because they know who's putting money in their pockets. Also, it's free promotion! JK Rowling has stated that she's perfectly happy with fanfiction; Anne Rice and certain other authors have asked fans not to to it. I say: respect authors' wishes.
Bibliographic Citation
For school and official publications, you'll need to follow the bibliographic format (way of citing sources) the teacher or publisher wants. There's a number of different ways of doing it.
Having to use a special format may seem like a pain in the butt, but it makes it easier for readers to follow what you're doing, and using a consistent system also makes it a LOT easier for computer searches. In fact, programs like Endnote can generate APA, MLA, and other formats for you once you enter the info.
MLA, APA, and Other Official Bibliographic Formats
There's a lot of standard formats. At minimum, they usually ask for the author's name, the book and/or article title, and a date; possibly a page number.
The two formats I've had to learn are APA and MLA, standards created by the American Philological Association and Modern Language Association. Classical studies uses APA; mythological/religious studies and anthropology use MLA (a jump I had to make a few years ago). Teachers, universities and many publications have their own formats. Nowadays the info's usually online.
There's usually a short version for footnotes and in-text citations, and a longer version for the full bibliography at the end of the article (called "Works Cited" in MLA format).
Note that MLA and APA have now added formats for citing websites and other electronic sources.
Below, I've pointed you to two websites that give quick-and-easy-to-follow style guides for APA and MLA formats.
