Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in Turnitin and Google Book Search: same thing?

Re: Turnitin and Google Book Search: same thing?

marcel h — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 18:25:44 -0000

Turnitin does have an opt out mechanism to not save the students' papers to the database, but the instructor has to set it up in the assignment.

If Turnitin was used as designed, as a teaching tool, allowing the students to do a self-check of their papers, this lawsuit probably never would have happened. Most people are ignorant to the fact that a large percentage of the student papers that are submitted consist of words and ideas taken from other authors without proper citation or acknowledgment. The student that initiated this whole scam lawsuit is a D level student. Do you think it is fair to the honest, hardworking students when the cheaters get better grades on papers by using what someone else wrote?

Re: Turnitin and Google Book Search: same thing?

False Data — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:45:36 -0000

Is there a legitimate market for student papers to be included in plagiarism-checking databases? Or for resale to further plagiarism?

If there are no legitimate markets at all, it seems like that fact would tend to undercut the cost recovery rationale for copyright, limit the infringement argument (because there's no improper appropriation), and maybe strengthen at least one factor of a fair use defense.

Re: Turnitin and Google Book Search: same thing?

Tim Lee — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:23:52 -0000

Well, one difference is that (I believe) the students specifically requested that their papers not be retained by turnitin, but that they did so anyway. Google Book Search has a robust opt-out mechanism. It's not clear how important that is in a fair use analysis, though.