Plagiarism is not allowed on SoM, the site's Terms of Use prohibit anyone from copying another's work and placing it on this site without giving proper credit where it is due.
Not only is it not allowed on SoM, but it is also not allowed on the internet and is illegal.
Please remember this when using someone else's information either as an addition to yours or as a fully used article. All you need to do is simply add the website or book where you obtained the information from, below are two examples.
If you have problems with citations or need help in citing something, an easy website to use is easybib.com. It auto-cites for most websites on the internet and can help you out in citing a book you only know the title of.
"by submitting your contribution to spellsofmagic.com, you:
warrant that your contribution;
is your own original work and that you have the right to make it available to spellsofmagic.com for all the purposes specified above;
is not defamatory;
does not infringe any law"
--http://www.spellsofmagic.com/terms.html
"Canadian copyright law is governed by the Copyright Act, which protects original literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works. A partial list of works which are entitled to copyright protection in Canada includes: books, newspapers, dictionaries, manuals, catalogues, magazines, pamphlets, computer software, paintings, drawings, design trade-marks, sculptures, architectural works, engravings, dramatic works, photographs, films, videos, scripts, maps, lyrics and musical works."
Kerr, Philip B. "Copyright Law in Canada."Copyright Law in Canada . Web. 12 Sept. 2011. http://users.trytel.com/~pbkerr/copyright.html.
And most authors seem to prefer that none of their work is reproduced without permission, despite having a citation or link to the website. Exceptions to obtaining permission are for brief cites - like a quoted sentence/paragraph in a scholarly paper or article, properly cited, or for a book review, again properly cited.
I, for one, am always annoyed when my spells and articles make their way around the internet regardless if they're linked back to my blog.
It is far safer to only post your own writings or to just include a link to a webpage versus copying and pasting the text.
That's true. Checking the front cover of a book will tell you how much of their information they want to be transmitted electronically. Most books say they cannot be reproduced as such.
However if you read multiple articles on spirit guides and the meanings of each, and rather than copying and pasting parts of the article, you write your own article while including some of the information, it should still have citations for the articles that you read since they gave you some information about it. Even if you did write it from your perspective.
It is actually if not illegal, highly discouraged and unproffesional to use work that doesn't even have what LdyGry mentioned, a specified form of citation.
I do not agree that works should be o.k to be posted as long as they have citations and what-not. The idea of people posting their knowledge is for people to learn from it, not to copy it, and paste it, unless that is specifically stated. In fact, there is a certain license showing pre-approved use, re-use, and editing to be welcome.
It is a rule in my coven that if members are to quote other people's work they must not only cite it, or reference it (internet wise), but they must throw in their own ideas, opinions, input, and knowledge to show they themselves understand the text.
In the opinion of an old member, getting credit for a lot of work that isn't at all yours is just as bad as plagiarism.
Just my thoughts, and thank you Adriana for clarifying some of these terms people for some reason find confusing sometimes,
~ Nalli ^_^
