Catherine Boudreau's List: Copywrite

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize"  means

 
• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own  
• to use (another's production) without crediting the source  
• to commit literary theft  
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing  source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing  someone else's work and lying about it afterward.