The Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988
The Copyright and Patents Act 1988
People who write, paint, compose music, design web pages or invent something, for example, have 'intellectual rights' over what they have done. They own the copyright. This means that somebody who wants to use what they have done must get permission first from the copyright owner. The copyright holder can refuse to give permission, give permission freely, give permission but attach some conditions of use or could charge for permission.
These rights are enshrined in law in The Copyright and Patents Act 1988. For example, If you find a web site you like, you cannot make copies of the web site. You cannot burn copies of the web site on to CD without permission nor can you use images you found there without permission. Many web sites, photographs and images now incorporate software that 'stamps' the images with the copyright owner's details.
If you do a computing project as part of your course, you cannot include work in your project that somebody else has done without properly giving credit to the author. If you do use somebody else's work without giving it due credit then this is known as 'plagiarism'. It is both unethical and a breach of copyright. There are many web sites offering projects for sale for both school work and university work. Educational institutions and exam boards have become very wise to these sites and now regularly run software through submitted coursework to look for passages that have been stolen.