On Mar 12 2007, Denise N. Rall wrote:
Dear Aoir-ers -
What's in the hash? I assumed it was a very partial sketch of the paper, including things like the title, the first paragraph (perhaps) some keywords and the bibliography.
No -- it's an alphanumeric string created from the text according to a specific algorithm -- think of it as a condensation of the values of the symbols in the text (kind of like Hebrew Gematria, if you are Kabbalistically inclined).
How would this breach the student's copyright if they have copied the paper to begin with????
I would tend to be more concerned about the copyright of the students who weren't plagiarizing. But, even plagiarized papers may have sections of original authorship, and the original selection and arrangement of unoriginal material can also qualify for copyright. Just because it's plagiarized doesn't mean there isn't originality for purposes of copyright. Those are separate questions. DLB -- Dan L. Burk Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly Professor University of Minnesota Law School 229 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455 ********************************** voice: 612-626-8726 fax: 612-625-2011 bits: burkx006@umn.edu