On Mar 8, 2007, at 6:37 PM, Barry Wellman wrote:
Dear AOIRers,
A colleague teaching another course has come across an issue with an undergrad who refuses to hand in her term paper because the faculty member's course requires that all papers also be submitted to Turnitin.com.
The student claims that this violates her own intellectual property because Turnitin reportedly keeps copies for future plagiarism searches.
I am not interested in the ethics or the morality of Turnitin, but in how other situations have been resolved.
I can't speak from experience with Turnitin - but I'll jump in the speculation :-) I see 2 possibilities - <a> your colleague has a very sophisticated student on his/her hands. I have never come across an undergrad who conceives of his or her own work as "intellectual property" - especially if it's just a term paper. Perhaps they are doing truly extraordinary work, and should be starting a business and making millions instead of writing term papers. <b> the student in question is either irritated by the Turnitin requirement, or perhaps not finished with said term paper. In the process of irritation/procrastination, the student decided to search on the web for tips on how to argue with professors about Turnitin, and discovered the "IP loophole." My money is on <b>, but I'm interested to hear how the situation is resolved. A real cliffhanger! Andy