Plagiarism is "the act of using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to that person" (merriam-webster). Plagiarism can negatively impact society in many ways. If something is quoted and credit is not properly given, it can mislead the reader to think the author wrote that all on his own. The original author can see it and he/she will definitely be angry, and bad things can happen when people are angry - sues, fights, violence. Plagiarism also discourages originality because they are not the author's own ideas. It also takes away the whole point of copyrights. Plagiarism violates copyrights and published material, and if plagiarism goes about unchecked then there could be no new ideas anymore.