March 29th, 2007
Anti-Plagiarism Service Sued for Copyright Violation
By David Johnston
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
In a strange twist of fate, the anti-plagiarism service TurnItIn has been sued by four high school students for violating copyright laws. The claim stems from TurnItIn’s policy of adding the text of student papers to its database when they are checked for plagiarism. However, the students noticed that requests that their papers not be added to TurnItIn’s database were ignored, violating their intellectual property rights. They argue that TurnItIn should not be able to use student papers which it does not own in order to make money on its anti-plagiarism service. The suit specifies 6 papers that were copyrighted by the students before being handed in. The students are asking for $150,000 compensation per paper, though they claim to not want or expect the money.
Kevin Wade, that plaintiff’s father, said he thinks schools should focus on teaching students cheating is wrong.
“You can’t take a person’s work and run it through a computer and make an honest person out of them,” Wade said. “My son’s major objection is that he does not cheat, and this assumes he does. This case is not about money, and we don’t expect to get that.”
Andrew Beckerman-Rodau, co-director of the intellectual property law program at Suffolk University Law School, said that although the law regarding fair use is subject to interpretation, he thinks the students have a good case.
“Typically, if you quote something for education purposes, scholarship or news reports, that’s considered fair use,” Beckerman-Rodau said. “But it seems like Turnitin is a commercial use. They turn around and sell this service, and it’s expensive. And the service only works because they get these papers.”
Source: The Washington Post
Guido says:
About damn time. I’m going back to school (after having been out of school for 7 years) next fall and I’m seriously hoping that my university doesn’t use a service like this…
March 30th, 2007 at 3:33 am
Rick says:
Apparently plagiarism is only bad if you get caught … AND you make money with it.
I’m afraid the comments about this lawsuit (and about the article) are bent toward “I don’t want (my child) to be caught cheating … I want them to cheat undetected”.
I also believe that if you are submitting a paper for a grade you have no say on how it’s graded. If you don’t want to have your paper used, don’t submit it. Of course, you won’t pass the course … but a lesson will be learned none the less.
I won’t get into guessing what happened, or why … I’ll read about it later. I think the technology (and that’s what this blog is all about … technology) behind the software is wonderful, as is the actual software use. I’ll let the lawyers discuss whether the students actually had the right to refuse their papers inclusion in the database, or whether they assigned a copyright that is unenforceable.
Rick
March 30th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Busto963 says:
I have no problem with TurnItIn providing it’s data base services. Academic work is generally openly available and readily shared for the advancement of mankind. This is why graduate thesises are published and searchable through most libraries and now online. The caveat to freely sharing these works being those that deal with government or trade secrets.
Now, some of our under-performing students have discovered the hollywood (intentionally not capitalized) and corporate America secret – the path to riches lies not in hard work, education and cultivation of skills; but rather in use of lawsuits.
The service that TurnItIn provides enhances the educational process by getting our ignorant, lazy behind kids off their duffs and actually making them work. These twerps think their work is worth $150K per paper – yeah right. You would have to pay ME $150K per paper to read them! Next these imbeciles will want to get paid per math problem or science experiment. And we wonder why China, India and many other countries are kicking our butts academically.
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:07 am
Let it go says:
Granted, Turnitin.com is a worthwhile use for teachers to make sure there is no plagiarism, but as someone is talking about lazy students doing work, this just shows the laziness of teachers in paying attention to the students’ work.
Turnitin is a process that is annoying and oftentimes, can be troublesome. If you turned a paper in once before, and decide to use it for another class, ultimately the entire paper is plagiarized regardless of whether it was written by you.
Also, the process should be focused more on literary works and articles to search for plagiarism than another students’ paper. Teachers hand out the same types of writing essays each year, so how is it possible to not “plagiarise” another person’s paper that you haven’t met but done the paper years before, but have the same criteria and have a lower “originality” level.
I give props to these kids for doing this and being clever enough to say “Hey, you’re using our papers because we’re forced to give them to you. Their our work.”
Just cause it’s another lawsuit, it doesn’t mean that it hasn’t done before in other means. It’s just using the system to your own need, and saying “You’re kinda in the wrong”.
May 4th, 2007 at 9:30 am
checking plagiarism says:
Choosing An Online Plagiarism Detector To Check For Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a growing problem in academia and the work place. The internet has made it easy for nearly anyone to copy written material and pass it off as their own work. Because of the legal and ethical dilemmas associated with plagiarism, plagiarism checking software is now readily available. With so many online plagiarism detectors, choosing one may seem like an overwhelming task, but it can be easy if you know what you’re looking for.
May 9th, 2009 at 12:54 pm