Buying essays is becoming popular among students seeking to eliminate academic pressure. However, the legality of this practice is debatable. In this article, we will examine the legal implications of buying essays.
Plagiarism can lead to many problems for the person who wrote the essay. The consequences of this can be serious, such as even getting kicked out of school entirely or losing an academic scholarship.
Is Buying Essays Online Illegal?
Buying essays online is becoming an easy way to get good grades. You can choose from expert writers who will craft your essay based on your instructions. There are numerous websites where you can get essays written by these professionals.
Buying essays online is not illegal in some countries. Specifically, it is illegal in the US, Canada, and other countries.
Buying essays online is not illegal because it does not break any law or aggrieve any party. This is because it involves hiring someone as a ghost writer, which means you own the copyrights to the essay. However, buying papers online and submitting them in school is prohibited by school laws, and constitutes breaking their academic integrity rules.
Also, it should be noted that purchasing a student’s work or plagiarizing someone else’s work is illegal as it infridges on another person’s copyrights. Therefore, using such work is can lead you into legal suits.
What makes it illegal is using someone else’s work without permission. In this circumstance, you are using someone else’s essay without giving credit to it to the source leading to plagiarism.
Is Buying Essays legal?
Many students are fond of buying essays from online sources or professional writers. However, the legality of this habit is questionable and can result in serious consequences for both the writer and the student.
buying essays online is legal in most countries, but breaks school rules. Many institutions consider submitting a purchased essay as academic dishonesty, which violates the institution’s code of conduct. Consequently, the student may face disciplinary actions like suspension, expulsion, or a failing grade.
Moreover, buying essays violates copyright laws as the purchased work since the student is not the owner. The writer who sells their work to the student may also face legal action for infringing copyright laws.
Reasons why Buying Essays may be Illegal
The habit of buying essays may raise various ethical and legal concerns. In this section, we will explore how it violates academic policies, infringes copyright laws, and undermines the integrity of the educational system.
Additionally, we will examine the consequences that students and writers could face when caught buying essays or even selling them.
Overall, here are the reasons why buying essays is illegal:
1. It is cheating
Cheating is a top reason why buying essays is illegal. It violates academic policies and undermines the basic principles of academic integrity.
It amounts to dishonesty when you submit purchased essays as your work. It is unfair to other students who work hard to get good grades.
Furthermore, it deprives students of an opportunity to learn and improve their writing skills.
Many institutions take this matter seriously and impose serious consequences, including suspension or expulsion, for students caught cheating by buying essays.
2. Breaks school laws
Some academic institutions have strict policies against academic dishonesty, including submitting purchased essays as one’s work.
Violating these policies can result in disciplinary actions like suspension, expulsion, or a failing grade.
Students who buy essays break the school rules. As a result, this can have long-term consequences for their academic and professional careers.
Furthermore, students who buy essays will be cheating themselves out of the opportunity to learn and grow academically.
3. Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a concern when it comes to buying essays. Plagiarism violates copyright laws and can lead to severe consequences for the student and the writer.
Furthermore, plagiarism undermines the principles of academic integrity and honesty, which are critical in the literary world.
Plagiarism can result in severe consequences, including course failure, suspension, or expulsion. In extreme cases, it may even result in legal action.
4. Violation of university policies
Buying essays violates the policies of universities and colleges. One should submit original work that demonstrates their knowledge and skills.
For that reason, if you an essay and submits it as your work, they need to meet this requirement.
5. Fraud
When students purchase an essay and pose it as their own work, they are deceiving their professor and the academic institution.
This fraudulent behavior can have serious consequences, including disciplinary or legal consequences. Additionally, writers who sell their work to students under pretenses could be committing fraud.
6. Copyright violation
The writer who develops the essay owns the copyright to that work. Selling it to someone without permission violates their intellectual property rights.
Again, copying the content from another source without proper attribution can result in legal issues for the student and the writer. That is why there are safety concerns when buying an essay online.
7. Contract violation
Most academic institutions have codes of conduct and policies that students must agree to and sign for enrollment. These policies do allow cheating, plagiarism, and academic dishonesty.
If you purchase an essay, a student violates this contract and could face disciplinary action.
Instances why Buying Essays is not Illegal
Personal use
In some situations, buying essays for personal use may not be illegal. For example, a student can buy an essay to use as a study or reference guide to improve their writing skills.
In this scenario, the student does not submit it as an original work, and the writer knows that the work is being purchased only for personal use.
However, it is vital to check the institution’s academic policies to ensure that such cases do not occur.
Model answer
In some cases, academic institutions give model answers for students to use as a reference. In situations where they do not provide a model answer, students may buy an essay to serve as a guide for their writing. However, it is vital to acknowledge the source and not submit the purchased essay.
Custom writing services
Custom writing services provide students with essays tailored to their specific requirements. As long as the work is original and written according to the student’s instructions, purchasing such essays is not considered illegal.
However, ensuring that the service is reputable and not involved in plagiarism or academic dishonesty is essential.
Academic Assistance
Students may buy essays as a form of academic assistance. Such could happen if they face a time crunch or have other commitments. In this case, the student may use the purchased essay as a reference or incorporate some of the ideas into their work.
Limited use
It may not be illegal if a student buys an essay for a limited purpose, such as to gain insight into a particular topic or to learn how to format an essay.
However, if the student presents the purchased essay as their work, it would be academic misconduct. While buying essays is not ethical, it may violate the expectations of the school’s code of conduct.
No laws broken
No laws prohibit a student from buying or selling papers. At the same time, they get enrolled in a university or college.
Therefore, students can freely buy and sell papers without clashing with their professors, lecturers, or tutors because they have all the rights to do so under their rights as individual students and not as employees of any organization or institution.
Most countries have no laws about it
Most countries around the world lack laws on this matter. However, some countries have specific laws on buying and selling essays. Some of these countries include on our list are:
- United States: The US has specific laws on selling and purchasing essays regarding copyright infringement. However, it does not apply when buying and selling papers online.
- United Kingdom: The UK has specific laws on selling and buying essays concerning copyright infringement too. Notably, the law is silent when buying and selling papers online.
- Canada – Canada also has particular laws on the sale and purchase of essays about copyright infringement, but not when buying and selling papers online.
Willing buyer, willing seller
Here, there is some goodwill from the buyer and the seller to sell the same thing. Both parties may agree on the price and terms of sale.
The seller must have an established business that one can trust to follow through on its promises. Again, the seller should be knowledgeable about the product being sold so that everything is predictable regarding what is included in the package or how it should get delivered to you.
Countries that have made Buying Essays Illegal
UK leads in countries fighting essay mills. According to Guardian Magazine, published on 21 February 2017, the UK University minister planned to crack down on the so-called essay mills.
According to the news article on the BBC website on 6 October 2021, England does not promote contract cheating.
Below are other countries who have managed to make it illegal when caught.
1. Albania
2. Argentina
3. Australia
4. Austria
5. Belgium
6. Czech Republic
7. Denmark
8. Estonia
9. Finland
10. France
11. Germany
12. New Zealand
