Cheating Services and Copyright

[kniedzw]

So, in my daily web-browsing, I found this Washington Post article linked from Slashdot. The short form is that a few high school students are suing Turnitin for copyright infringement, and I think they have a legitimate argument

Comments

[novalis]

Checking for plagiarism is fair use. The copies are the minimum necessary to perform the check. So it's possible that under Kelly v Arribasoft or Sega v Accolade, Turnitin would also be considered fair use.

[kniedzw]

I don't buy that checking for plagiarism is fair use. It's a for-profit service, and they're keeping an entire copy of an otherwise copyrighted work on their servers.

Care to expand on your assertion that it's fair use?

[novalis]

I see it as a form of criticism, actually

[kniedzw]

Interesting take on the situation. I hadn't thought of it as criticism, though I'm not sure that the analogy would hold under close scrutiny. I'd have to mull it over for a while.

I think my own hope that Turnitin takes a hit here is rooted in my dislike of the rise of Simson Garfinkel's "Database Nation," paired with my disconnect from the current academic climate. I think the students certainly have what might amount to a valid argument, though the ultimate public good should be what decides this situation.

I am somewhat taken aback at the presumption of guilt inherent in requiring all students to submit their papers to Turnitin, and at the very least, I think there should be alternate methods by which a student can prove that they have not plagiarized a work that they are submitting for a grade. One that does not have a prohibitive cost in terms of time, money, or effort.On the other hand, the entire work must be available in Turnitin's database in its original form in order for manual checks to corroborate machine review.
...

[novalis]

I worry a bit less about Database Nation than most geeks with political views otherwise similar to mine. I've been strongly influenced by David Brin's Transparent Society (I think I read an essay version of the book ten or so years ago).

On the other hand, I agree that it violates the presumption of innocence to check every paper. So perhaps as a compromise position, every paper could be inserted into the database, but only those where there is suspicion could be checked.

[kniedzw]

Well, the flip side to your second paragraph is that plagiarism isn't against the law, and there's no requirement that innocence be presumed in this case, really. It's just a disturbing trend to my mind. Likewise, it's still a private database, and vast amounts of data in private hands makes me nervous. ...though I suppose that having vast amounts of data in anyone's hands makes me nervous, unless there's public oversight of said data.

Eh. Perhaps I'm just twitching for no reason.

The ultimate conclusion of the case will be interesting, one way or another, I think. ...unless they settle out of court, in which case the first case to actually be tried will be interesting. :)

[novalis]

Actually, plagiarism could maybe be fraud -- lying to get something valuable (a good grade). But anyway, I support the presumption of innocence in non-judicial procedings which may lead to discipline. It's a good check on institutional power.