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

[sapphohestia]

I'm on the side of the plaintiffs in this case - as authors they haven't signed over their intellectual property to this for-profit service. This is an issue where, I feel, you have to be firm, even if that decision has negative consequences. Arguments otherwise start to swerve dangerously close to the "freedom isn't free" arguments being used to eliminate civil rights. I'm not against collecting papers for data purposes, but writers should have a broad spectrum of choices (other than don't turn it in and fail) on how their work is stored and transmitted. And if turnitin wants papers for data purposes, they should be prepared to offer compensation

[kniedzw]

These systems wouldn't be so unreasonable if universities were willing to hire a reasonable quantity of instructors rather than spending their entire budgets on athletic programs.
This is a separate, though quite valid, argument. I'm very much of the opinion that we don't spend enough on education, and even when we do, we don't necessarily spend it wisely.

[brisance]

The students went to the trouble of building this as a test case, so I'll be interested to see what comes of it. I don't know that Turnitin itself tries to claim fair use - what they have instead is a reasonably draconian ToS

[kniedzw]

Well, technically, the copyright argument couldn't be made against the school, though it certainly can against Turnitin. ...so that's in their favor.

As to spreading the word about plagiarism, I agree. It's distressing how few students actually have a comprehensive understanding of academic honesty and citations. Of course, when you're caught red-handed, it's sort of natural to start spouting justifications, even if you ultimately recognize them to be bullshit. Anything to deflect blame from yourself.

[ratmmjess]

Ack...glrk...must not...explode.

I teach students about plagiarism and proper citation. I tell them the differences between omission and comission. I tell them about intent versus carelessness, and how to properly give credit.

And they don't pay attention. They tune me out, they talk to each other while I'm talking, they play on the computer--they ignore me, openly, and pointedly.

And then, like the student mentioned here, they complain when they are caught inadvertently plagiarising.

Students are told about proper citation and all the rest. In my experience, they just can't be arsed to pay attention.

[novalis]

Couldn't schools just build their own turnitin based on Google by requiring students to post their papers to a class web site? The supposed pedagogical purpose would be to allow everyone in a class to comment on everyone else's work. It's a bit more complex, since you have to do manual searches on interesting phrases (what algorithm *does* Turnitin use?), but it's still pretty good.

[ratmmjess]

Turnitin also gives access to various Proquest database documents, which most schools can't or won't pay for access to.

[eclectician]

When you say "Proquest database documents", are you talking about docs that come with a normal institutional subscription to Proquest or are they something over and above?

[ratmmjess]

We have access to articles (via Turnitin.com,, of course) that we can't get to through our normal Proquest subscription. It doesn't help us with our research, of course--I can't go into Turnitin.com and find Proquest articles that I can use--but we at least have access to them for the purpose of plagiarism prevention.

[d_c_m]

I hope the students win. I think that if Turnitin can't follow their own rules, well tisk tisk. And hey, I have had to deal with cheating students and I know how hard that is for profs. And when they are MY students it is really HARD FOR THEM.

In short, I've played Baba Yaga and I know how to sharpen my fangs. :)